STD 2018 Feels
by Jimmy1201
Summary: You know all the AUs of "So The Drama" where Kim blows off Ron at the prom then you discover that Ron has been hiding super martial skills and a vast fortune complete with many cool vehicles and a mansion then, when Kim finds out how wrong she was about Ron, she becomes a weeping puddle of regret watching Ron collect a harem? This is not one of those stories.
1. Chapter 1

(edited to add scene breaks)

"But Kim, Drakken is up to something serious! His getting rid of bendy straws was just a distraction! The Lil' Diablo toys are evil!"

Kim looked at her best friend in the whole world. Her typically laid back, supportive friend had been acting erratically lately. Well, more erratically than usual. He was stressed over a corporate takeover that was negatively affecting his beloved Bueno Nacho. She also thought that her new relationship with Eric bothered him. Since he had been totally supportive of her when she was crushing on Josh, that made no sense. Could it be that he was jealous of Eric because he suddenly now wanted to be her boyfriend? If so, then was it too much to expect that he would have said something? It had never occurred to her to date him, well, mostly because he was too 'safe'. But if he would have said something before she started dating Eric, she liked to think that she would have considered giving him a chance. Dammit, they needed to spend some time together and just talk things out, but there had been no time in the last few weeks. Was it her fault that she wanted to have a freakin' normal life for her new boyfriend and the prom and her schedule was booked solid?

"Ron, please, let me have this one night off. They are just little toys. We have GJ and the police to protect us, let them handle it tonight. Look, tomorrow is Saturday, we'll spend the whole day together and figure all this stuff out, OK?"

"All this stuff, KP?"

"Everything. You, me, what we are doing, who we are to each other. Everything. Even Bueno Nacho's getting rid of bendy straws and those stupid little robot toys. But please, Ronnie, let me be a normal girl this one night. Tomorrow I can handle 'never be normal' if I can just have this one night as a normal girl. Please?" green eyes pleaded.

"OK, sure. Tomorrow then KP," Ron turned and walked out the doors of the gym looking like she just kicked his mole rat.

She watched him leave, wanting to scream in rage at the heavens at the unfairness of it all.

"Is there a problem, Kim?" she jumped, startled as Eric came up behind her with two cups of punch.

"No, not tonight, I refuse to have problems tonight, Eric," she replied taking the offered drink. 'I need to be around more guys than just Ron to get used to how they move,' she thought, 'Ron wouldn't have startled me, I know how he moves. I mean Eric is just a guy, right? A hot, intelligent, funny, athletic guy with the deepest brown eyes...,' her thoughts derailed as she looked at her date for the prom.

Hearing a slow song starting up, he bowed with a goofy grin and murmured, "My Lady, may I have the pleasure of your company for this dance?"

"Please and thank you, kind sir," she returned his smile. Her earlier irritation was banished by his warm eyes and the grin that seemed a little familiar somehow. She put down her glass, took his hand and was swept into a fairy tale.

* * *

STD 2018—

"OK, Rufus, gather up the troops and follow after me when you can."

"'Kay!" Rufus scaled the twelve-foot wall and scampered off in search of his contact.

Ron had managed to lose the Lil' Diablo toys that had been pursuing him, his scooter wasn't exactly fast, but they were only about six inches tall and there teeny-tiny legs couldn't keep up even when they deployed tiny wheels.

Wade had really wanted him to stop at the Possible's house and talk to Kim's dad about the little toy robots because the older Possible was more knowledgeable about that technology. Ron refused because being at Kim's house tonight would be too painful because she was going to tell him tomorrow that they could only be 'ordinary' friends from now on. Plus, he knew that her father didn't exactly approve of him while he had heard from Tim and Jim that Mr. Dr. P. liked Eric.

All worries considered, he figured that the first dozen years of the "Kim" stage of his life were over and somehow, he would have to move on to the next stage in his life. He had heard that the cherry blossoms at Yamanouchi were pretty in the spring. He decided that his one last Middleton mission would be to get to Bueno Nacho headquarters as soon as possible and uncover Drakken's plot. Not necessarily stop it, without Kim, he would have no chance against Shego, but expose it to the 'proper authorities'. The usual route to get to the headquarters building would be to hop on the highway, but he knew a much shorter way by the lake that was more 'scooter-friendly' and would get him there faster.

* * *

STD 2018—

Drakken chuckled and rubbed his hands together in glee.

"Shego! Everything is going to work this time!"

"Sure Doc, just like the last dozen times...," the dark-haired mercenary snarked.

"Oh, you mock now, but just wait and be amazed." Pointing at a monitor he tapped on a keyboard and the Middleton High Prom came into view as he continued gloating, "See, Kim Possible is dancing the night away in the arms of her perfect guy, synthodrone #901. The buffoon just stopped by and tried to warn her about the Diablo toys, but she told him that she wanted to be a "normal girl" for prom night, that they could talk about it tomorrow, and he left in defeat." Switching the monitor over to the Stoppable home and then the Possible home, he gloated, "the buffoon is off crushed and probably crying in a gutter somewhere, he didn't go to his house, or her house and," the monitor changed to a view of a highway, "he hasn't been spotted heading in this direction. If he does show up tomorrow, it will be too late!"

"You mean you lost him?"

"Well, yes, but who cares if you lose a loser?"

"What about Global Justice?"

"Ha! Funny thing about them. They have gotten so used to Kim Possible discovering our plots, that the analysts whose job it was to try to track us were reassigned." The supervillain gloated.

"So when does the balloon go up?" When that got a blank look from her boss, she tried again, "You know, 'pull the trigger'? Oh for Pete's sake, Dr. D., when do the little robots stop being toys, turn into giant robots, and start taking over the world?"

"Shego, you know I'm not up on teen-speak!," checking another screen, he continued, "The final software update will be compiled and tested within the hour. I can then transmit the software update package and after another thirty minutes I can switch my global transmission link from data to power and the world will soon be mine! Except for Greenland, of course, you can have Greenland..."

* * *

STD 2018—

Kim was pressed up against Eric, her arms wrapped around his hard body, the sensual smell of leather teasing her senses. They had left the prom in time to get her home by the agreed upon 10 PM. Kim had popped into the bathroom and swapped her heels and elegant long skirt for sneakers and tight jeans, leaving the skirt and heels in her locker. He had swapped out his tux jacket for a leather one. Riding on the back of his motorcycle was the perfect end of the perfect prom date. Eric was, in her totally biased opinion, the hottest guy there; Bonnie and Brick were clearly put in their place as second-tier.

Even leaving the prom was a triumph, it was pretty early in the evening, so everyone was there to see them leave. Naturally, they had to cut along the edge of the dance floor so everyone could see Kim with her Club Banana designer jeans selected to showcase her long, muscular legs and Eric's leather biker jacket cut to highlight his lean, athletic build. Even in non-formal clothes, they clearly outclassed the other couples. The food chain might be stupid and petty, but being number one still felt good.

"Kim?" Eric's voice came over the intercom built into the motorcycle helmet he had given her to wear, "I called your parents and told them we'd be a bit late."

"Late?" Kim felt warm and drowsy, "We aren't going straight to my house?"

"We still can if you want, but I thought we could pop up to the lake to watch the moon rise over Mount Middleton. Is that OK with you? Your Dad said you didn't have to be home until eleven-thirty."

"Sounds perfect, Eric," the redhead purred, the thought of stopping at a well-known makeout place on the way home sent a sensual frisson of anticipation up her spine. This night was turning out to be better than she could have dreamed. Maybe tomorrow she would tell Ron that she was going to become a 'normal' teenage girl and just turn over the whole hero business to him and Wade. Those two, along with Rufus, could take care of saving the world...

Laying her head on Eric's muscular back, she closed her eyes, 'just for a second'.

* * *

STD 2018—

Ron came to the edge of the tree line behind the Bueno Nacho headquarters. A large dish antenna was rising up on an expanding tower and he could see the dish turn as if looking for something.

"Looks like as good a place as any to start," he said out loud and then felt foolish because Rufus was still gathering reinforcements and was not here. He used what little stealth he knew to get past two cameras, through the chain-link fence, and into a small building containing what he figured was the high power radio signal amplifiers and antenna control circuitry. Seeing a data port he plugged in his Kimmunicator.

"Wade, You're plugged into the satellite equipment thingy. Do you see anything?"

"Holy cow, Ron, I'm seeing U.S. Government Top Secret markings all over the code that is being transmitted. It's been compiled, I guessing that Drakken is loading an executable version of stolen code into something."

"Maybe those little toy robots?" Ron guessed, "is this enough to get GJ or someone out here?"

"It should be. I'll inform DOD, GJ, and Secret Service. I can't stop it remotely with this connection, it's a data monitoring port. Do you see any other ports?"

"Not that I have a Kimmunicator cable for, Wade. I see some cables that look like data cables, maybe I can pull them out and plug them in backward."

"Give it a try and then get out of there, someone is sure to notice if the data goes bad and will come out to fix it. Good luck Ron."

"OK, Wade, change the cables then run like hell works for me, I'm no hero."

Ron looked at the various cables and found three ribbon-like ones similar to the ones he had seen in Wade's computer. Pulling them out, he reversed the plugs and reconnected them. The one and only time that Wade had let him help with a computer build, he found that while you weren't supposed to be able to plug a cable in backward, it was doable, you just had to push really hard.

"Ron! The data is definitely all messed up" cheered the voice from the communicator.

"Wade, I'm going to take a quick look for a self-destruct button just in case there is one and then I am outta here."

"I don't know Ron, hurry, you might not have much time..."

* * *

STD 2018—

An entire column of status indicators changed from green to red on one of Drakken's screens.

"Dr. D.!? what are those?"

"Just a data corruption alarm, my dear Shego. Not to worry, there is so much error correction and redundancy used in the data stream that the Diablos will be able to reconstruct a correct copy of the software they need using the data they already have. It will just take a few minutes longer. Still, I'd better have someone check the transmission shed, maybe a squirrel or something is chewing on a data cable."

"I'll check it, I'm not doing anything anyway," offered Shego.

"No. You stay here. Too much high voltage in that room, we'll send some synthodrones," Drakken clicked on the window labeled 'synthodrone deployment spreadsheet'. Before he could reassign any of them, a red phone lit up.

"Eric, my boy! How's it going? I saw your performance at the prom, you were marvelous! ... At the Lake, good, good... She passed out before you had a chance to do anything? Hmm. Must have miscalculated her weight or something when I fixed the drugs for her. Sorry, my bad! Well, go ahead and service her anyway then, make sure to be a little extra rough so she will feel it when she wakes up. I want her to have no doubt as to what happened. Then come back here, it's getting close to time to 'pull the trigger on the balloon' as the young folk say." He hung up the red phone, highlighted the entries for five drones on the spreadsheet, and used a pull-down menu to select 'Transmitter Shed'."

"You're going to rape the princess?" Shego stared at the mad scientist in astonishment.

"Of course not Shego, I'm not a monster! Synthodrone 901 is going to do it. Just think of the total humiliation, not only does she fail to stop us from taking over the world, but any doctor that looks at her is going to find syntho-goop instead of semen inside her!"

Shego broke out into a hearty laugh, "Doc, you are a genius!"

* * *

STD 2018—

Eric spread a blanket down on the grass out of sight behind some shrubberies and laid a limp Kim on it. Removing her helmet, he put it back on his bike. The helmet had a drug-infused liner that provided the vapors that had rendered the young heroine into her current state of unconsciousness.

Because she wasn't supposed to be totally unconscious, only compliant, he pulled out his phone to report in and ask for instructions. After calling in, he put his phone back in his pocket, pulled off her sneakers, unbuckled her belt and was starting to tug off her jeans when he felt a strong yank on his ankle. Internal warning messages cascaded across his vision as he quickly lost all internal pressure. The pressure was lost so fast that he didn't have time to react. His syntho-goop wasn't just leaking, it was being sucked out...

"LENARD! NO! BAD LENARD! BAD! WE DON'T BITE HUMANS! SPIT OUT THE LEG!" (auto-translated from hisses and clicks)

"BUT ROACHIE! IT'S NOT A HUMAN, IT'S MORE LIKE A JELLY DONUT! COME TASTE THE FILLING!"

Rufus saw a cockroach with the mass of an elephant sucking on the leg of what he hoped was a synthodrone, its eyes closed in complete insectoid bliss. Roachie came up and the first one politely passed the leg over to it for a taste. A third came over and started sucking on the other leg after biting off the foot at the ankle.

Rufus ran over to check on Kim. She was asleep and wouldn't wake up. He knew he couldn't wait, Ron was depending on him. But he didn't want to leave her here totally undefended. Not when the deflated body of this synthodrone suggested that there were more around, in his experience, Synthodrones were like, well, roaches. He also knew that Kim would seriously freak if she woke up to find a giant cockroach watching her. Roachie was his only choice. Not a very good choice, but the only choice.

"Roachie!" squeaked the little hero, "Stay here. Guard this female. Follow us when awake. Tell others follow me."

"SWARM! FOLLOW THE RAT! HELP THE GOOD HUMAN!"

(General hissing and clicking as the dozen giant cockroaches voiced their acknowledgment.)

Rufus hopped on the lead cockroach and using a pair of feelers like reins, guided it down the path that Ron used. Within seconds, the swarm had scurried out of sight, the only evidence of their passing was crushed and trampled vegetation and the continuing sound of small trees snapping as the multi-ton bugs followed Rufus, all hoping for more of the humanoids with the tasty jelly filling.

* * *

STD 2018—

Drakken, who had been staring at his displays, suddenly broke out in a big smile, exclaiming, "Thirty-six percent of Diablos have reported back as software updated successfully and ready for power! That's outstanding Shego! Better than in my wildest dreams!"

"I don't know Doc, that seems kind of low to me..."

"Not at all, first, there are a million of the little toys scattered all over the world. I can afford to have a lot of them fail. Second, there are a few more that successfully downloaded the software but their reply signal didn't get picked up. Right now, they don't have much power. But I can fix that!"

Giving actions to his words, the mad scientist typed a single command on a console. The building lights dimmed and a deep hum was heard coming from the back of the building.

"Going to be a heck of an electric bill", his dark-haired partner teased.

"Not at all, in thirty minutes, the Diablos with the strongest connection will be able to go live and connect to the local power grid to finish charging. Within an hour even the poorest connected units will be online looking for local power. To be safe, we'll transfer to the Nebraska lair in thirty minutes. We'll run command and control from there. The authorities are bound to figure that this power broadcast is up to no good. If nothing else, the interference from the power transmission has jammed all cell phones in a fifty-mile radius." Pulling up his synthodrone spreadsheet he saw that three of the five were off-line. He highlighted another dozen of the synthodrones and sent them off to the transmission shed.

"Shego, can you go check the transmission shed, three of the synthodrones are off-line. Perhaps something larger than a squirrel is messing with the cables. I've sent more, but you'd better have a look."

"Sure thing Doc, be right back."

"And Shego?"

"Yeah?"

"Be careful, the main power busses are black, but that is an anti-corrosion coating, not insulation. For all practical purposes, they are bare wires. And do hurry back, this location is bound to get Federal guests here sooner or later."

"Gotcha Doc, any squirrels I find, I'll just toss them against the black bars going to the antenna.

* * *

STD 2018—

Kim's head pounded and she felt a bit groggy. Sitting up, she was trying to figure out why her jeans were partially off and where Eric was when she looked up and gave a little shriek of fear and surprise. There was a huge bug, a cockroach the size of a large dog looking at her. The adrenaline rush blew away her grogginess. Struggling to pull her jeans up so she could get up and run (damn designer skinny jeans!), she noticed that the monster was tilting its body to the side. Its eyes somehow grew impossibly larger and its hideous mouth quivered. Stunned, she realized that it was doing the monster bug version of her puppy dog pout! Something clicked in her mind, she knew this bug, only it used to be a little smaller...

"Roachie, is that you?" she said softly.

The definitely non-flickable bug did a little dance with its back legs making its butt wave around, it was wagging its tail! Definitely Roachie. Still disgusting though...

"Roachie, what is going on?"

Looking down where the monster that Ron had once declared "fun-sized" was staring, she saw the remains of Eric. Eric, the obvious ex-synthodrone, who was now totally drained of syntho-goop. She had been falling in love with a guy who wasn't even human! She had even kissed him! Once again, she wanted to scream at the heavens in rage. Surely a 'normal' girl would have known immediately that he wasn't a real guy, probably by the taste of his lips or something. She swore that the next guy she was interested in she was going to have Tara 'taste' him first.

Still affected by the drugs, her mind was crowded with random thoughts. Was she saved by some sort of Syntho-vampire? Why had Drakken sent a synthodrone to date her? Was this related to Ron's fears about the little toy robots? How long would it take to find Ron and go check out Drakken? Where did hottie artificial humans fall on the food chain? Roachie interrupted the jumbled thoughts bouncing around in her brain with some hisses and clicks, then took a step towards a path leading into the woods and stopped.

Putting her sneakers on and forcing her mind into mission mode, she stood up and asked, "Do you want me to follow you?"

Soon she was running full speed down what looked like a freshly cleared, smoothly packed trail. Worry that Roachie was taking her to a Ron in trouble crowded all other thoughts out of her mind.

* * *

STD 2018—

Ron had known that he was in trouble and would have run away screaming except that the synthodrones were between him and escape. Still, he had dropped three, his standard mission load for Drakken included two box knives and the ground was slippery with the syntho-goop from their slashed bodies. With the three older models down and two apparently new and improved models still going strong, he allowed himself a glimmer of hope. A dozen synthodrones joining the fray snuffed out that glimmer. The cream-poop icing on the crap cake that his life had become was the snarky voice he heard from the dark-haired woman pushing through his opponents;

"So, sidekick. Chewing on wires hoping to get some street cred to go work for Squirrel Girl now that Kimmie has kicked you to the curb to take up housekeeping with Eric?"

Motion in the tree line caught his eye. Rufus was here! Now if only he could survive the next thirty seconds... He tried to calm his mind and be ready for one good strike. Something in the way she said 'Kimmie' sent shivers down his spine. Kim was in danger! He had to break through and get to her! Could it be Eric? Nah, Eric thought Rufus was cool...

Believing that Ron staring past her was a ruse, she stepped in with a roundhouse kick. Her intended victim, at the same time, leaped in with a double whirling strike. Closing the distance took a lot of the force out of her kick, and he put a deep gash on Shego's face, slicing all the way to her cheekbone with one knife but the other just grazed her chest, slicing through her bodysuit and down into the fabric of her bra, but barely scratched her skin. Enraged, she delivered a plasma boosted uppercut knocking the boy into the shed. Following him into the shed, she lifted him up by grabbing his shirt with one hand and flaring the other hand with a short plasma flame.

"Maybe," she snarled, "you need a beauty mark to match mine. No, I think yours needs to be bigger, because that's just the kind of giving person I am," as her plasma flame burned a wide path from his chin up to the side of his head. The stench of burning hair, flesh, and bone was sweet perfume to her enraged soul, his screams music to her ears

Feeling the ground vibrate, she dropped the screaming young man and turned to see massive creatures advancing toward the shed, their hideous mouths dripping with saliva at the thought of the tasty, tasty treats in front of them. Figuring that the title of Queen of Greenland would be of no use to a dead woman, she fled.

* * *

STD 2018—

Kim was racing along the path. She had heard the snapping of trees and brush getting louder, so they were getting closer to... something big? The sound stopped and she heard Ron scream. She had heard him scream before, but this was no 'scream of courage', this was raw, primal agony. She reached inside herself and increased her speed, now desperate to get to her best friend before it was too late. Roachie picked up his pace and outran her.

She nearly stumbled and fell when she rocketed out of the tree line. Skidding to a stop, she saw that giant cockroaches had trampled down a chain-link fence and had swarmed a transmission shed, one even starting to climb the tower apparently in pursuit of a synthodrone. Most were sucking on the limbs of synthodrones and one was trying to wedge its way into a transmitter shed. She saw that one reach up and bite black bars running up the back wall.

A bright flash lit the area with the shock wave from explosion knocking her down.

* * *

 **Next Time on So The Drama: 2018 "feels"**

"Drakken and Shego have probably already left, Wade. Find them."

"Already ahead of you there, Kim. I have most of the state covered by an experimental short range, low altitude radar network using hijacked personal Wifi routers. I've tracked them leaving the area. I think they are headed to the new lair that Drakken has in Nebraska."

"Get me a ride to Nebraska, Wade. I want to leave as soon as I get Ron to Middleton General. Call Mom and tell her I am bringing in Ron with a serious head wound. Pack a .380 for me and I need as many of the P rounds as you can get. Time for civility is over."

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

 **Authors Note:** This story is the result of a short exchange with Mindless Violence Fan and is fueled by generic Twitter Rage. It was not beta or otherwise reviewed before publication. I feared my usual team of smart story writers would have me coming to my senses. :)

This is not the story I really want to work on, that story is the tale of Jim, Tim, and Thora becoming a team and Carlynn & Sigbjorn struggling with what real love is. But, Twitter Rage. Still, this story should satisfy the legal requirement that every Kim Possible fan fiction writer is required to have a version of So The Drama.


	2. Chapter 2

Her reflexes honed from years of both a criminal and heroic lifestyle, Shego dove over a low wall the moment she saw the flash, hoping to avoid shrapnel. Waiting a few seconds to see if there were any additional explosions, she was startled when Drakken landed his two-man hoverjet on the picnic area beside her.

"Come Shego!, The Feds are only minutes away."

Getting up, she ran to the hoverjet. Looking over her shoulder, she saw wreckage where the transmission shed used to be. 'Well sidekick, looks like you avoided a hospital stay, maybe Doc and I will send flowers to the funeral' she smirked as she vaulted into the hoverjet.

After Drakken set the autopilot to use nap-of-the-earth flying to avoid radar, he turned to look at his partner. Seeing blood on her face, he asked, "What the heck happened back there, Shego? Are you OK? Do you need a doctor or a hospital?"

"No, I'm OK, my face has already stopped bleeding, but that cut was so deep that it might leave a scar, dammit. I ran into the buffoon, he cut me, so I burned him. He left me with this beauty mark, I left him with half a face. I wouldn't have left him with that much, but he set some sort of monsters on me. I figure the explosion finished him off. Did any of your Diablos get enough power to start?"

"No, but I can adjust my plan. I will finish charging them from the lair. It won't be nearly as fast, but we should be harder to detect and we will simply have to compensate for the two days it will delay having the first units on line."

* * *

Kim ran to the blast area, dodging fleeing giant cockroaches that had been spooked by the enormous flash of light.

She saw Roachie scurrying over to the last giant cockroach, which kneeling next to a person she assumed was Ron. Stopping in horror, she saw that half of his head was in its mouth. Looking around for a weapon, distracted to the point that she didn't hear Roachie's hisses and clicks, she swore that she would never again be caught unarmed. A .44 Magnum Desert Eagle would be nice right now...

"LENARD! NO! BAD LENARD! BAD! WE DON'T SUCK ON HUMAN FACES! SPIT HIM OUT!" (auto-translated from hisses and clicks)

"BUT ROACHIE! HE'S HURT, I'M JUST KISSING HIS BOO-BOO TO MAKE IT BETTER!"

"SPIT HIM OUT! WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW! OTHER HUMANS, HUMANS ARE COMING THAT WILL HURT US!"

Finding a section of pipe, Kim turned to attack the giant roach, but both of them turned and scurried away with startling speed. Tossing the pipe away, she ran to her best friend and knelt down beside him. He was unconscious, maybe slipping into shock, but alive. She could see major damage to one side of his head, but the damaged area seemed to be covered in rapidly hardening clear plastic resin.

Feeling his body carefully, looking for bleeding or broken bones, she came across his Kimmunicator. She held down the call button indicating an emergency call. Wade immediately appeared on the screen.

"Ron, wha... Kim! Where's Ron!"

"He's right here and he's hurt bad, Wade. I think that a squad of Roachie's friends showed up to help him and one shorted out a power grid or something. Anyway, there was an explosion," looking around, she continued, "but I don't see any roach body parts..."

"EMT services are already on the way Kim. Cockroaches are tough bugs, Kim, the explosion probably just knocked it over or something."

"Drakken and Shego have probably already left, Wade. Find them."

"Already ahead of you there, Kim. I have most of the state covered by an experimental short range, low altitude radar network using hijacked personal Wifi routers. I've tracked them leaving the area. I think they are headed to the new lair that I detected Drakken building in the Nebraska Sandhills."

"Get me a ride Wade, I want to leave as soon as I get Ron to Middleton General. Call Mom and tell her I am bringing in Ron with a serious head wound. Pack a .380 and I need as many of the P-210 rounds as you can get. Time for civility is over."

"OK, Kim. I think I can get you two rounds. Are you sure you want to do this? It's a major line to cross."

"Two will have to do, Wade, and Drakken and Shego already crossed the line. The kid gloves are officially off. Gotta go, talk to you later."

Looking around, she spotted a moving bit of pink struggling to get out from under a section of wall. Going over, she freed Rufus, placing the little guy on her shoulder.

"Kim!" he squeaked, "Where's Ron?"

"He's over here, Roofie. Let's get him to the medics."

Not willing to wait on paramedics one second longer than she had to, she carefully hoisted the blonde over her shoulders and started toward the front of the building.

* * *

Will Du had been in town briefing the Middleton Secret Service office on GJ anti-counterfeiting operations. He was at a late dinner with several of the agents when he got the call. Quickly collecting what backup he could get, he soon found himself in a van with six heavily armed Secret Service agents pulling into the parking lot at the front of Bueno Nacho headquarters. Seeing a flash at the back of the building, Du left two men out front and led the other four around the side. Using the low walls surrounding a courtyard and picnic area for cover, they rapidly made their way to the back where they found a collapsed tower and a circle of scorched rubble where the base of the tower and the transmitting equipment used to be. At least a dozen deflated synthodrone shells littered the area.

They saw Kim Possible walking toward them carrying the unconscious body of her best friend.

* * *

"Kimmy, what the hell happened out there?" Anne Possible was talking to her daughter on speaker phone while she finished getting scrubbed and gowned for surgery.

"Not sure Mom, I got there too late to help," her daughter's voice contended with background noise, suggesting she was in the back of a truck. "I suspect the burns on the side of his face are plasma burns from Shego."

"And what is the stuff on the side of his face? The stuff that looks like plastic resin."

"I'm guessing giant roach spit, Mom."

"WHAT?!"

"When I found him, a giant roach was sucking on the injured side of his face. There might also be some syntho-goop contamination in the wound, there were pieces of synthodrones everywhere."

"Are you really OK, honey? Maybe you should come in and have one of the doctors check you out..."

"I'm fine Mom, at least as fine as I can be with Eric turning out to be a robot designed to mess up my life and then rape me, Ron getting half his face burned off by Shego because I wasn't there to watch his back and pretty much any chance of me ever being a normal girl getting flushed down the toilet," the young woman paused to get a breath and get a grip on her emotions. At least enough of a grip to stop growling to her mother.

"WHAT! Eric assaulted you?!"

"No Mom, I think that was the plan, at least when I woke up he was dismantled and my jeans were pulled nearly off, but some, uh, friends of Ron protected me.

"Woke up? You were drugged? Honey, I really want you to come in for a checkup. Please."

"Mom, I'm OK, everything was pretty much over by the time I caught up to Ron. I was knocked down by an explosion but got nothing more than mussed up hair. Got to go, it's a save the world thing. Bye Mom, I love you." There was a click as the connection closed.

Anne joined her team and walked into Surgery #3, working to push her concerns about her daughter aside to focus on her patient.

* * *

"Thanks for the mission pack, Wade. How many P-210 rounds did you give me?" Kim was checking items from the mission pack and had just gotten to a .380 pocket pistol.

"Two. I put one in the chamber and one as the second round in the magazine; so, remember, your _**first**_ and _ **third**_ shots are the special ones. Make sure you don't miss. Are you sure you want to do this Kim? You are really crossing a major line here."

"Yes Wade, I have no problem crossing this line. Ron is seriously hurt, probably brain damaged, might even die. Drakken is getting ready to take over the world by force and still takes the time to set me up to be raped because... why? Don't know, don't care. Drakken has to die and I'll have to go through Shego to get him. I won't risk them coming after you or my family. She's as good a fighter as me without her plasma. And with her plasma, I don't have much of a chance if she's really serious about hurting me. She took the gloves off when she did... that... to Ron. It's past time that I took off mine."

"Kim there are official government organizations that exist to remove these kinds of threats."

"No time for that, Wade. I just got off the phone with Tim and Jim. They've been examining those Lil' Diablo toys and Dad thinks they might be made of materials copied from the Hephaestus project. If so, and if the Tweebs are correct and the transmitter that Ron blew up was intended to power them up, then we might only have a day or two before Drakken has another chance to power up thousands of those little toys. Little toys that can become giant rampaging mechanized monsters or something. We got lucky last night. Those official agencies will take several days to argue over who is lead. If I understand certain laws correctly, the President or at least the Governor has to personally authorize their use."

She paused and then after a moment of silence said, "Go ahead and say it, Wade, you know you want to."

Her tech support guy looking way older than his fourteen years, replied, "Not going to do it, Kim. **It's not your fault that you didn't go with him**. You might be a world-saving teen heroine, but you're still a teen!"

Kim didn't look convinced.

"Listen to me," Wade pleaded. "It's like my Dad says, you have to go with the information that you have at the time. Ron, well, I'm not sure why Ron decided to go alone. I begged him to at least check with your Dad about the robots, but he went alone to see what Drakken was up to. He got the information and would have gotten away cleanly if he hadn't decided at the last minute to look for a self-destruct. It was sheer dumb luck that he stayed too long and ended up in a fight with Shego that destroyed the transmitter tower, otherwise, the world would be fighting giant robots later this morning."

"Not dumb luck, Wade, dumb skills. I'll call you when I am ready for pickup."

"Be careful Kim. I'll be waiting for your call."

The redhead clipped the holster securely in her pocket and slid the gun into it. Somehow, she had known for over a year that this day would come; the day that she faced a threat that her fists and wits couldn't handle. A threat that would force her to match force with force, fire with fire. She fastened the gun down with a snap strap, that would take an extra fraction of a second to draw it, but in an acrobatic fight, she didn't want it to come loose.

She put her Kimmunicator in her other pocket, moving a billfold with some cash, a Club Banana Employee discount card and driver's license to a pocket of her pack. Leaving her pack behind, she grabbed her chute and prepared to jump.

* * *

Dr. Anne Possible was one of the premiere neurosurgeons in North America; Always calm, cool, collected and an excellent teacher. At the start of surgery, she had watched another surgeon prepare her patient, not to be confused with a boy named Ronald Stoppable that she loved like another son. Not Ron, but a patient that deserved and would get her total concentration and focus.

Her assisting surgeon, Dr. Skyler Beechman, quickly and carefully removed the layer of resin coating the area that Anne needed to open up. Because it seemed to protect the burns on the side of his face, the two doctors decided to only peel off the part that was absolutely necessary. Anne started her part of the surgery by removing the obviously dead skin, bone, and brain tissue. Three days from now, her screams from a nightmare would wake James in the middle of the night, but now she calmly, methodically, and quickly removed and discarded cooked sections of his brain. She also did her best to clean areas contaminated with white syntho-goop and clear sections of still soft roach spit(!?) while carefully tying off little blood vessels as she went.

"How is this man still alive?" she wondered out loud.

"Dr. Possible," asked Skyler, "can you hold for a few seconds, I want to look at the area with different lighting."

"OK," Anne moved her hands away from the hole in her patient's head.

"Lights off please," commanded Skyler.

"Oh, my sweet lord," muttered Skylar, "Dr. Possible, do you see that?"

Anne stared in disbelief as she watched dim blue sparks travel along the living surface of the exposed brain, leaving new areas of living brain tissue coated with streaks of white and clear material behind. The blue sparks were slowly rebuilding the damaged areas of the brain. Stunned, they watched as a dead section of brain tissue sloughed off and fell out of the hole.

"Get a low-light video camera in here, we need to record this!" Anne ordered. "And increase the IV drip. Somehow, this man is regenerating himself and I'm willing to bet he needs increased nutrition and hydration to continue." She looked at Dr. Skylar. "We can worry about HOW, later. Right now, I want to help this miracle along as much as I can."

* * *

Jean Stoppable sat cross-legged on the mat, little Hana sitting in her lap. Both had their eyes closed and looked relaxed and peaceful. The nearby brook provided the background sound of burbling water. The woman's mind wasn't quite so focused as her appearance would suggest. The quick trip to Japan, to finalize the adoption she and her husband had been working on for weeks, had come at an inopportune time. It was her son's Junior Prom, or more to the point, the wee hours after his Junior Prom. She knew that Ron hadn't managed to find a date and she hoped that he still managed to go and have a good time. While she expected him to behave himself, in one little corner of her mind, she hoped that he hadn't made it home yet...

Gene stood off to the side and quietly said, "Ms. Yori, I wish I had joined Jean for Yoga when she was taking it years ago. I don't have the flexibility to do that."

The young woman in the black uniform replied, "Stoppable-san, come with me, we will work on your flexibility and find a position that you can meditate in." Looking carefully at the out-of-shape older man, she continued with a small smile, "I suspect that your job might be to assist young Hana in the more physical aspects of her training."

Gene snorted, "Maybe as a combat training dummy."

"Everyone has a purpose in life, a calling if you will," the young woman smiled.

"This is not really an orphanage adoption center is it?"

"Do you suspect us of human trafficking, of selling babies?"

"No, no," said Gene, "I look around and while there are many young people like yourself here, there are no other small children. I can't believe that the amount of screening and having us come here for training is typical of any adoption service. Hana is special, we both believe that. But she must really be super special for you to spend this much time selecting parents for her."

"I am permitted to tell you that Master Sensei is going to offer you and your wife employment if you come to live here."

"Why, what is so special about a couple of ordinary Americans?"

"I do not know. But I know that your son, Ronald is special in a way related to Hana and the odds are that if you can have and raise him, then you are the ones to raise Hana. If her parents were still alive, we might have sought you out to act as aunts and uncles to young Hana," the young woman's eyes misted with unshed tears, "You would have liked Mineko and Taro. They had a 'never be normal' philosophy much like your son."

"Ms. Yori, do you really think that a pair of gaijin like Jean and I could fit in here? I mean, I'm an actuary, so I can work anywhere, but will we belong here?"

The young woman paused and replied, "Stoppable-san, not all people here are perfect. But I truly believe that nearly all of us would welcome you, your wife, Ron, and Hana as family, not foreigners. What does Ronald think of you coming here?"

"We haven't told him, we wanted more information first. He has told us very little of his trips here except for the beauty of the land and the goodness of the people."

The pair slipped off leaving mother and daughter to finish their meditations.

Safe, secure, and feeling loved in the lap of the woman who truly wanted to be her mother, Hana silently moved her lips as her eyes softly glowed blue.

* * *

"Kim Possible!" exclaimed Drakken as the teen hero appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"Well, well, cupcake. Come to get revenge for your little sidekick? I only got to work on half his face before I was rudely interrupted. Too bad the explosion finished him off, with only half a face, he would have made a distinctive buffoon," the dark-haired woman sneered as her hands lit with green flames.

"Ron's a big boy, he knew what he was getting into," Kim snarled back. "As my Tai Chi instructor is fond of saying: 'We all get to the same place, some just get there a little quicker'."

"Whoa, princess, that's cold. Then why are you here? I assume that pistol in your pocket isn't for starting races."

"Uh, if it's about Eric taking advantage of you, that was a, uh, error in his software. He was supposed to be a distraction but still be a perfect gentleman at the same time," mewled Drakken.

Shego looked at Drakken with disgust, "Oh grow a pair," Turning back to the redhead, she snarked, "When did you discover your lost innocence? When you noticed syntho-goo running down the inside of your leg?"

"...running down the... What? Eww! No! Eric was sucked dry by roaches before he could even get my pants off," Kim controlled her breathing, trying to become calm and centered.

"Roaches? How..." Drakken muttered, confused.

"OK, Princess," the pale villainess snarled in a challenge, bringing up flaming hands like a boxer, "I'm not sure why you are here, but I'll tell you what. You take that gun out and I'm going to shove it into a random orifice of my choosing! So, do you have the guts to play in the real world? We're about to find out! Either use that thing or turn tail and run!"

Shego launched herself at her long-time rival. With one smooth motion, Kim drew her pistol and prepared her shot. The attack of the villainess was powerful, efficient... and predictable. She landed directly in front of Kim and spun, lashing out with one foot to sweep her opponent's legs from under her. The move kept her entire body moving and difficult to hit... except for her bracing leg. Kim shot Shego in that leg then, as the pale woman staggered, she shot Drakken with the second shot.

Seeing that Shego was regaining her balance, Kim put the second round in the magazine in Shego's other leg. As Shego roared with rage and slowly stood up straight, Kim emptied the last four rounds into Drakken, backflipped to avoid a flaming plasma ball, and ran out of the room dodging another two plasma fireballs. Continuing to roar obscenities, Shego stumbled forward as her superhuman metabolism sped up to quickly heal the muscles in her legs. Outside in the corridor, Kim replaced the magazine and chambered a round. She held the pistol in her right hand and waited.

Shego slowly limped out the door, bright green flames from her hands lighting the doorway. "You screwed up cupcake, there isn't an exit down this hallway! Too bad old Ronnie was blown up, I'm going make you and him look like bookends."

Kim fired three rounds, with only one hitting her foe, the rest were deflected by plasma blasts. She ran around the corner and sure enough, there was a dead end about fifty feet from the corner.

After several long moments, Shego staggered around the corner, the rage on her face turning to horror when she discovered that she could no longer generate a plasma flame.

"How?" she gasped, collapsing to the ground. Looking up, she hoarsely whispered, "I won't beg..."

Kim walked past her firing three rounds into her head at close range. "Good," she said, sliding in her last magazine.

Drakken was still alive when she got to him. "Polonium-210 bullets," he gasped.

"What?" his red-haired executioner asked.

Nodding to a flashing yellow light on a console, he managed to say, "I have an Alpha particle detector. Polonium-210, it's one of the deadliest poisons in the world, a poison that kills cells directly with radiation. Her healing metabolism accelerated its effects. Where did you get it?"

"Wade has connections, I don't ask, he doesn't say." Walking over to a computer console, she started shutting down the computers controlling anything that looked like comms or power distribution.

"It's rare and very expensive,"," Drakken gasped, struggling to remain awake and learn some answers. "You didn't just run down to Smarty Mart and pick up a box... you had to have planned..."

"Like I said, Wade has connections," Kim offered her foe only a quick glance, to make sure he couldn't try anything. Satisfied, she returned to her task. "He also plans. He knew that someday, Shego may need to be eliminated and he started to collect the materials. Congratulations, Drakken. Tonight, you managed to graduate from irritation to deadly threat."

"You've grown up," he gasped. "So, Kimberly, how does it feel to be a killer?"

The background whine of a power generator dropped in pitch and was silent.

"Don't really feel anything right now.", she said looking down. Then turning to him, her face vacant, "Why the rape? I mean you've had us in your control before, so why now?"

Drakken coughed and spat, "I guess it was a game before. And knowing that I had control over you and could do anything I wanted to you was enough. But I got tired of failing. And I wanted you to defeat yourself. I didn't originally plan on rape, I wanted you to give yourself freely to Eric and then discover what you had done."

Two pistol shots rang out, then the flicker from sparking wires and the smell of burning electrical insulation drifted across the room. "That's better than control-alt-delete, I'll have to mention it to Wade," the young woman's voice was eerily calm.

After more coughing, her foe continued, "But I made a mistake with the drugs intended to make you willing. When you passed out, I figured that rape would have to do. I wanted to demonstrate my control by breaking your spirit, killing you would have been too easy."

He laughed, "But I beat the mighty Kim Possible! I have destroyed the hero you were!"

Four pistol shots rang out, "Congratulations, Dr. Drakken, you won.", as his body hit the floor for the last time. Then, finding a fire axe next to a coiled fire hose, she took a moment to remove the heads of her former foes. 'Never can be too careful around superhuman types,' she thought.

Finding the self-destruct wasn't hard, after all, Ron typically found it while battling a half-dozen synthodrones at the same time. Activating the self-destruct, she left the lair, walking out of the side of a large sand hill. Looking around the entrance, she found a water faucet and hose next to some tomato plants.

"Wade?" she pressed the call button.

"Kim! Are you OK? What happened?"

"Tell you later, I need a pickup this location for one wet and naked teenage crime fighter, please and thank you. Quick would be good, I'm pretty much in the open out here. No trees, just sandy hills. And I'll need a new Kimmunicator."

"Gotcha! Shall I call GJ and tell them to check out the lair?"

"Tell them after I get my ride. They don't need a free show. And tell them the area is a radiation hazard for alpha particles."

"Your ride will be there in ten minutes."

"Thanks, Wade, you rock," the young woman stripped, wrapped her Kimmunicator, along with her pistol, in her clothes and placed the bundle on an exceptionally sandy spot. As the bundle burst into flames, she hosed herself off in the cold water, rinsing her hair and cursing her short-sightedness in not stashing at least a hairbrush and conditioner outside the lair.

An unmanned helicopter landed close by almost exactly ten minutes later. Hopping in, she was pleased to find towels, a hairbrush and a spare mission pack with clothes.

"Where to, Miss Possible?" a robotic voice asked.

"Middleton General Hospital, please and thank you."

As they took off, the ground shook as a rumbling explosion caused sections of the sandy hill to collapse, entombing the former supervillains. Kim sat on the floor of the small cargo area, still naked and wet, wrapped her arms around her legs and cried. Wade, listening in, slowed the helicopter to give her more time to grieve and turned up the heat in the cargo area so she wouldn't get chilled. It wasn't the first time he regretted not being able to provide comfort in person. He was just afraid that it wouldn't be the last.

* * *

Anne walked out of the Intensive Care Unit where she had been monitoring Ron. She and Dr. Beechman had worked on Ron until Five AM. Anne sent Dr. Beechman off to grab some sleep, the younger surgeon was exhausted, mostly emotionally. Anne was much better at denying the reality of who her patient was and how slim his chances of recovery were. From past experience, she expected to be able to keep herself together for a couple more days until she could get James alone and fall to pieces in the soothing comfort of his arms.

"Hi, Mrs. Dr. Possible," a cheery voice called to her. She looked up to see Tara and Jessica from Kimmy's cheer squad. The cheery voice was Tara's although it and the smiles on both girls faces didn't match the worry and concern in their eyes. Cheerleaders, like surgeons, wore masks to hide their true feelings, but these girls weren't as good as she was. She sincerely hoped that they never had to be.

"Hi, Tara, Jessica," replied the surgeon wearing her "Happy Cheerleader's Mom" mask, "what are you two doing here this early on a Saturday?"

"How's Ron?" Jessica asked, her mask slipping a little.

"Dr. Possible, let's take this discussion into a consulting room, please," Linda, the senior floor nurse steered the three into a private consulting room. She knew from her years of experience when a doctor/family conversation was about to go off the rails.

Alone in the room with the door closed, Jessica repeated, "How's Ron?", her mask almost totally gone.

"Ronald?" Anne was trying to figure out if she could just lie to these girls when Tara held up her tablet computer displaying a tweet from the Middleton Gazette with a picture of Kim carrying Ron with the caption, "Kim Possible Saves Middleton From Dr. Drakken". In the picture, Kim looked flushed and a bit mussed, probably from when the explosion knocked her down. Ron, by comparison, had torn and bloody clothes with the burns on his face clearly visible.

"It was Ronald that saved Middleton," the surgeon quietly replied, her own mask dangerously close to cracking, "Kimmy said that she got there too late and that everything was over when she showed up. I'm sorry girls, I really can't talk to you about Ronald, I haven't been able to reach his parents yet."

Tara's mask shattered. Sobbing, she threw herself at Anne wrapping her arms around the older woman, "He's dead, he went out alone to save us and now he's dead!"

"We can't find Kim, Mrs. Dr. Possible!" Jessica's mask was gone, worry and fear for her friend evident in her face, "Without Ron to watch her back, we're afraid she's going to get herself killed."

"Girls! Girls!" Anne desperately struggled to keep it together, "Listen to me, Ronald is NOT dead, but he was critically injured. I talked to Wade fifteen minutes ago and Kim is on her way back here. I expect her to show up in about two hours. I told him to tell her to go home and get some sleep, but you can imagine how likely she is to do that."

Jessica gave a tearful snort, "Yeah, I can just imagine."

"Ron could still die?" Tara pressed, tears still in her eyes, "I want to sit with him, nobody should die alone."

Anne lost it and collapsed into the arms of the two cheerleaders, still desperately trying to hold back sobs, but failing.

* * *

Yori hustled Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable into a Western-style office. Behind a desk, the head of the adoption agency that introduced them to Hana, stood in greeting.

"Mr. Sensei," asked Jean, "Is something wrong? We came here as you asked for additional interviews and to see how to help Hana connect to her heritage. We are truly falling in love with her and will do anything for her. I believe that our son Ronald will soon feel the same way."

"My wife is correct, Sir," said Gene, "and we aren't totally clueless, this is not really a school for an orphanage, but something else entirely. Ms. Yori mentioned that you have a proposal for us to come work and live here?"

"You are correct, but the many details you need to know must wait for another day. You must return home immediately. Ronald has been hurt and needs you. Yori and Hana will accompany you to Middleton. You will find that young Hana and Ronald have a connection that is deeper and stronger than any typical brother and sister, even twins. Trust and nurture that connection."

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

 **Authors Note:** This story started as the result of a short exchange with Mindless Violent Fan, fueled by generic Twitter Rage. Starting with this chapter, drafts were run past CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 who have boosted the story from a three chapter 'throwaway short' into a much, much better story. In the last several days, I have had email discussions on character motivation, corrections to timeline stuff with respect to canon and example scene suggestions from CB and ST-103. Daccu, who really is busy with real life, added some action and dialog. All have thrown extra plot bunnies at me. The story is still basically mine - I mean who else would have a giant cockroach suck on Ron's face because "HE'S HURT, I'M JUST KISSING HIS BOO-BOO TO MAKE IT BETTER!"?


	3. Chapter 3

**(Time: Saturday afternoon after Prom)**

Kim didn't exactly run, but she thought she saw a disapproving expression from at least one floor-nurse as she hurried past various sections on her way to the ICU. She briefly checked in with the head nurse and walked into Ron's room where she found Tara sitting next to Ron's bed with her tablet propped up as if she was watching a movie with him. She saw that Ron was unconscious with half of his head heavily bandaged but at least he didn't have a breathing tube.

"K! You're OK!", the bubbly blonde got up and hugged her cheer squad captain tightly.

"T? What are you doing here?"

"Watching **Beauty and the Brick** with Ron, silly," Then changing to a whisper, she continued very quietly, "He's barely hanging on, K. Your mom won't tell us, but we have found out that his surgery went a lot better than expected, but the next day or two are critical. Jessica and I are doing shifts until his parents get here. If he dies, then at least he'll be with a friend." Backing away, Kim could see her eyes were bright with unshed tears.

"Hey Tara, need a break? Oh, hi Kim, glad to see that you are OK."

Kim turned to see Jason Morgan, Tara's date to the prom. Was the prom really only yesterday?

"Why do you think I wouldn't be OK?" the puzzled redhead was relieved that they weren't asking her about how her date with Eric went.

"Have a seat Jason, the movie is close to the part where the townsfolk march on the castle where the Brick is wooing the fair Mason. Come on K, come with me, we can't have three visitors in here for long, it's against the rules."

Tara pulled her cheer captain along, while Jason pulled up the chair, saying, "You're a tougher man than I to watch that movie, how about we change to **The Brick Identity** or **The Brick Supremacy** until she gets back..."

"When's the last time you have eaten?" Tara steered the redhead toward the cafeteria.

"Uh, I'm not carrying any money..." was the reply.

"I am and you're good for it. Sit here and I'll be back with food."

Kim watched dully, she was hungry but her lack of sleep was catching up to her.

Tara plopped a tray between them, "I started to pick up burgers and fries, but decided that you need calories instead," grinning she added, "Of course, I have to keep you company." The salads had lots of cheese, crumbled bacon, honey roasted walnuts, dried craisins and a peppercorn sour cream ranch dressing. Tara was almost as famous as Ron at Middleton High for having a high metabolism.

The blonde waited until Kim started to eat, then started an inane conversation about pretty much anything and everything - except Eric, the Prom and the events of last night.

The extra calories helping to temporarily push back her fatigue, the redhead asked, "OK, Tara, I appreciate your 'blonde act', but I know you better than that."

Pulling out her cellphone, the blonde, in hair color-only, tapped on the screen several times then handed it to Kim with the screen showing the Middleton Gazette's picture of Kim carrying Ron with the caption, 'Kim Possible Saves Middleton From Dr. Drakken'.

"K, what the hell happened and where have you been?"

* * *

 **(Time: Monday after Prom, late afternoon)**

"Kim, honey, you really need to go home and get some rest. We can take over for you."

She opened her eyes to see the worried face of Mrs. Stoppable. "I'm OK, I just closed my eyes for a second..."

"I'll see that she gets home OK, Mrs. Stoppable," Jessica was pulling her gently to her feet, that girl was the second strongest on the squad and could bodily carry her out if needed. Letting herself be led out of the room, she turned to take a last look at Ron. She saw a tiny dark-haired girl straddling his chest, leaning forward to look into his closed eyes. That was Hana, his soon-to-be baby sister by adoption. His parents told her that Yamanouchi's 'Mr. Sensei' had told them the toddler could help Ron. To her overstressed mind, that seemed pretty low on the weirdness scale, at least as she and Ron counted weirdness.

In the hall, they ran into Mr. Stoppable. Hugging Kim, he said, "Thank God that you are OK, Kimberly. Jessica, let me take Kimberly home. Besides, Rufus needs to report and I'd really rather that you help him, please."

"Well..." Jessica looked doubtful and seemed reluctant to let her captain go.

"I swear I won't interrogate her. Please, I need a break from this place, the shock of seeing Ron here is getting to be too much. If I can get just a small break, I can prepare myself mentally to come back and actually be useful."

"OK... I guess," Jessica replied, "K, we'll message you if anything changes."

"Thanks, Jess," the exhausted redhead wobbled a little then steadied with a little help from Mr. Stoppable.

Jessica walked back into the room, looking around and seeing no nurses, softly called, "Rufus? Time to make a report, sweetie." A lump moved under the covers and a small pink form appeared and ran over to her shoulder bag. She picked up the bag as soon as Rufus climbed in and she walked out into the hall. Traveling down the elevator, she was soon outside the hospital. Casually walking back to where there were benches and lots of flowering plants, she sat down and put her bag on the ground. Rufus slipped out and ran into the flower bed where she assumed that he did his 'business'. After a minute the rodent slipped back into the bag with a squeak of 'Thanks!'

Standing up, she casually sauntered around to the loading dock area where the dumpsters were kept. A lid on the farthest dumpster lifted up and a pair of antennae slid out. Rufus made strange hissing and clicking sounds which were answered in kind from something inside the dumpster. The exchange stopped, implying that Rufus had brought Roachie up to speed on Ron's status. Steeling herself not to flinch, she stepped up to the dumpster, reaching out to stroke a pair of antennae the diameter of a garden hose.

"Thanks, Roachie, you guys are the best!" she cheered, pulling on every cheerleader skill she had to make her voice sound happy and enthusiastic. An antenna nearly the diameter of her wrist waved in front of her, begging for attention. Petting it with an honest laugh she said, "You too, Lenard." Following the antennae, she saw Lenard hiding in plain sight next to the dumpsters. No mean trick as it was easily the size of two dumpsters placed end to end.

Task complete, she walked back into the hospital and up to the ICU.

* * *

"Mr. Stoppable, I'm sorry about Ron, it's my fault he got hurt." She had mechanically allowed him to steer her to his car and they were on the way to her house.

"Really Kimberly? You burned his face?"

"NO!" taking a breath and a sniffle, she continued, "He told me that he suspected that Drakken was going to try to take over the world but I wanted to finish my date at the stupid prom and wouldn't go with him. He went alone and I wasn't there and Shego bur... bur..." her voice breaking into a sob.

"Here," he handed her a box of tissues, "So convinced of your own importance you are."

"What?" she said after blowing her nose.

"Kimberly," he said softly, "the problem I see is that you both have put yourself in a place where you are indispensable. Granted, you more than Ron, but seriously, neither of you have a backup. What if you had slipped on spilled milk at lunch and broken your leg? Would it still have been your fault that he got hurt?"

"No, but my leg wasn't broken and even with me refusing to help him, he actually saved me from being sexually assaulted! What the hell kind of friend am I?"

"Right now, you are an emotionally exhausted friend who needs to take care of herself so she can be there for Ronald," he pulled up in an empty driveway. Getting out of the car, he told her, "Come on, let me fix you something to eat, then you can get some sleep."

"You cook?" she said too stressed to be polite.

"Of course," he replied, "All Stoppable men cook," he smiled, adding "it's how we attract **the ladies**." Turning serious he continued, "You said that Ron saved you? But I thought you two weren't together."

"We weren't. Rufus was bringing help to him. On the way to help Ron, they ran into me, found me drugged and about to get raped and saved me," all the blood drained from her face, "If they hadn't stopped to save me, they would have been in time to save Ron from being burned... Oh my God, it really was my fault!"

Mr. Stoppable steered a weeping Kimberly into the house, managed to get her to eat a little lunch and sent her to bed. Then he called his wife.

Jean Stoppable pulled up in the driveway ten minutes later. Getting out of the car, she was followed by Tara.

"Is she really bad honey?" the older blonde gave her husband a quick kiss at the door, "Anne is tied up in surgery for the next several hours, Yori and Jessica with Rufus and Hana are with Ron."

"It's bad dear, they were planning to rape her," her normally laid-back husband said, anger flashing in his eyes, "Ronald somehow saved her, it didn't make a lot of sense to me. If you two will watch her, I will run back to the hospital and be with Ronald. If she needs her mom, call me and I'll get Anne cut loose if I have to burn the place down."

"Let us try first, dear," Jean replied, "she probably needs someone to talk to more than anything. We'll call you if you need to do something. But let's not add to her guilt by dragging her mom out of surgery, at least not yet."

As Gene got in the car to hurry back to the hospital, Jean told Tara;

"Tara, you go on up, I'll get us some drinks and join you in a minute."

As the older blonde hurried into the kitchen, Tara started up the stairs to Kim's loft yelling, "K! I'm coming up! It's OK if you aren't decent, I've already seen it!" The stairs going up to a hatch in the ceiling was unconventional and while she wasn't as close a friend to Kim as Ron had been...STILL WAS, she still knew the way. As her head popped through the floor, she could hear a faint, sobbing sound. Looking towards the bed, she saw that Kim was curled up around her plush Pandaroo, full fetal, and quivering slightly.

"Kim!" She gasped and vaulted up the few remaining steps with a speed and grace that came from years of being a cheerleader. She was soon sitting next to her squad captain, resting a hand on a trembling shoulder and wondering what else she could do.

"T? Why aren't you sitting with Ron?" asked the miserable young woman.

"His dad called his mom, thought you needed someone to talk to."

"Who else is here?" Kim asked, hearing the sound of a whirring blender.

"His mom is downstairs, she said she was making us something to drink."

"Oh, God, T, how can I face her when Ron getting hurt was my fault! Maybe I'll get lucky and mine will be poisoned," groaned the redhead.

"Sorry Kimberly, no luck, no poison, just a smoothie with a little protein isolate and ground flaxseed powders along with the seven essential chocolates and heavy cream," Jean came up the stairs carrying a blender jar and three glasses."

Mrs. Stoppable poured a glass for all of them, "OK, rule #1. Nothing that any of us say here leaves this room."

"Not even to my Mom?" Kim's voice was flat, defeated.

"Anything that your Mom needs to know, you will tell her," the older blonde said, "Kimberly, you've been my son's best friend forever, I know that you will do the right thing."

"But I wasn't his friend on prom night!", the distraught young woman wailed, "I refused to go with him because I was more interested in my date than going with him to watch his back!"

"Kimberly, did you have any reason to expect that Ron would be in danger? Wade says that the idea was that Ron was just going to take a quick look and report to the authorities..."

Kim apparently wasn't listening, "People are saying that he went alone, that he was a brave, foolish boy! But that's not true! He had backup coming," her voice dropped to a low moan from her anguished wail, "and his backup would have saved him, but it stopped to save me instead of directly going to help him. That delay cost him everything.

"K," Tara said softly, "you only told me part of this at the hospital. What really happened? Who attacked you?"

"Eric," Kim laughed bitterly, "Eric was everything I thought I wanted, a hot piece of arm candy, smart, funny. You saw us at the prom, T. We were the perfect couple, the top of the food chain. Or I guess I should say the **fool** chain..."

"Eric attacked you?!" Tara exclaimed, "I thought he was a good guy!"

"Eric kidnapped you?" Jean tried to understand, "Then Ron's friends rescued you?"

"Eric was neither good nor a guy. He was a synthodrone, a sophisticated robot created by Drakken to keep me distracted so I wouldn't interfere with his plans." With both blondes temporarily speechless, Kim continued,

"He didn't kidnap me, he was my date, I **trusted** him! I **wanted** to go with him! He told me that he called Dad and got permission for me to stay out for another hour and a half. We were going to drive up to the lake, watch the moon rise, make out a little..."

"What happened K?" Tara asked, "I can't imagine even a robot overpowering you..."

"Drakken...he planned this," Kim finally murmured between her sobs. "He wanted E...that thing to molest me, just because I had beaten him so many times! He drugged me," Kim was nearly wailing again, "Drakken told me that he miscalculated the dosage, that the drugs were supposed to make me 'compliant' but knocked me out instead. He said that he wanted me to feel utter defeat, that not only would I fail to save the world, but my rape or seduction would have been the humiliation and degradation icing on his take over the world cake."

"He was petty and evil," Tara assured her friend. "He wanted to hurt you in any way he could."

"But with Eric," she laughed bitterly, "Drakken miscalculated again." After several, shuddering breaths, the redhead managed to continue. "Eric...he was so perfect...and I wanted him. If he had skipped the drugs, well, I was already hoping to have a serious makeout session with him at the lake. It was a beautiful night and we had the park to ourselves. If he had..."

"If he had just acted the way he had been, you would have gone all the way with him?" Tara asked, her voice just a whisper. Kim nodded.

"What does that make me?" Kim hissed, sobbing but trying to be quiet. "I wanted to make love to a thing! I wasn't a person to that thing or to Drakken! I was a thing to be used and humiliated...and I wanted to make love to it!"

"You didn't know!" Tara protested, hugging her shuddering friend. "You just thought he was a really cute, funny and great guy! He was everything you wanted...so you shouldn't feel bad about wanting him."

"But when my best friend was getting hurt like that?" Now, Kim wasn't trying to control her volume. "Ron was out trying to stop Drakken while I was off about to..."

"Kimberly... Drakken played you!" the older blonde sat next to her and gathered both girls in her arms, her heart breaking for the young heroine. "You have a good loving heart, it wasn't your fault that bastard took advantage of it."

"And now here I am, complaining about this, while my friend, the friend that saved my **worthless virtue,** might be dying!" Kim wailed. "What does that make me?"

"Human," Tara told her.

Jean pressed a glass on Kim, making her take a sip, "So how did Ron's friends find you if they were supposed to be helping Ron?" asked Jean.

"Turns out that their path took them past us. Rufus was leading them. A synthodrone uses pressurized goop in tubes instead of muscles and bones. I woke up with my jeans mostly pulled off and **its** deflated body next to me. One of Ron's friends was standing watch over me. I got dressed and we raced after Ron, but got to him too late."

"Did you wake up to Roachie or a big one standing over you?" asked Tara.

"Roachie? Uh, you know about Roachie?"

"Yeah, K, it's the damndest thing, Roachie and one of the big ones are standing guard at the hospital in the back by the dumpsters. You can't believe how easy it is for a bug the size of two dumpsters to be inconspicuous when it wants to be. One of us takes Rufus down to report on Ron's condition every few hours"

"Wait, Kimberly, you talked to Drakken," asked Jean, "Did he get arrested?"

"No, Mrs. Stoppable. He didn't get arrested this time." Kim couldn't look either of them in the eye.

"So what happened?" this Mom violated her principle of not asking her child a question if she didn't want to hear the answer. Right now, Kimberly wasn't her child, but close enough...

"I killed both Drakken and Shego then blew up their lair."

This mom decided that she liked this answer.

"But at least the world was saved," said Tara who had a more gentle soul that Mrs. Stoppable.

"Ron saved the world. Not me. I failed to save Ron. Maybe I can at least make sure he gets the credit," Kim hopped off the bed and picked up her Kimmunicator.

"Hi Kim, how can I help you?" asked her tech genius who looked nearly as wretched as she felt.

"Get me on a radio talk show and an interview with the Gazette, anybody you can think of. We've got to let people know that it was Ron that saved the world not me. It's not much, but it's all I got right now."

"Gotcha Kim, I see what I can get set up, call you back in about an hour." Wade sounded a little perkier, probably from having something constructive to work on.

Jean thought that Kim looked a little better probably because being a young woman of action, she was doing something to right a perceived wrong. Still, she pointed out;

"Kimberly, you need to tell your parents about all this or at least give me permission to talk to them, You are going to need counseling."

The young woman paled, "I can't! Mom dedicates her life to saving lives and I just took two. If Dad hears that I was almost raped, I'll never be allowed to leave the house again even to go to school, much less go on missions! You promised! I'm positive I can get counseling at a teen crisis center without my parents being involved, I'll do that, OK?"

Jean looked sternly at the young woman that she had once hoped to become a daughter-in-law. Getting up and wrapping her in a huge hug, she said, "Here is the deal. I will tell your mom that you are having a rough time and give no details. If Tara doesn't come to me and confirm that you have started counseling by Friday, I will tell Anne everything."

"Thanks, Mrs. Stoppable"

"You really should talk to your mom sweetheart, I've been on both sides of this secret thing and not knowing details suck."

"You mean Ron and my Mom?"

"Yes dear. It was the right thing to do at the time, but it still sucked."

* * *

 **(Time: Tuesday after Prom, Way too early in the morning.)**

"...And we're back with ' **Way too early in the A.M.** '. I'm Mike Metro and my guest this morning is Kim Possible. We've been talking about her and Ronald Stoppable's latest exploit with our callers. Our next caller is Sue. Sue, do you have a question for Kim?"

"Yes, I do, Mike. Miss Possible, you really refused to help Ron fight Dr. Drakken and Shego just so you could finish your date at the Prom?"

"Sue, as I said in the beginning, I felt that the thing with Drakken was not an emergency and I just wanted to be a normal girl for just one night. Ron Stoppable thought otherwise and went to investigate. That was fortunate for Middleton as he discovered that Dr. Drakken was about to start his attack. Ron stopped the attack but was seriously injured. I only arrived after he had blown up the transmission tower. I didn't know that anyone had taken the picture that the Gazette published and they didn't ask me. Otherwise, the caption would have given Ron the credit, not me."

"Miss Possible, I work hard and my husband works hard and we pay our taxes. I don't appreciate my tax money going to pay for you to go to the prom instead of being on-call to protect this city..."

"But Sue, we raised money to pay for the prom, it wasn't funded by the city..." Kim was baffled.

"I mean your salary; just how much did taxpayers pay for you to go on a date and the prom!"

"But, I don't get a salary for doing hero work, we just like to help people..."

"No salary? Then how do you pay for all your equipment, your guns, your bullets, stuff like that?"

When Kim didn't answer immediately, Mike looked over to see that Kim had gone pale at the last question. Switching off Kim's mic, the radio host frowned and started to end the show, but Sue continued after a pause,

"Really dear, maybe you just aren't cut out for the big jobs. Maybe you should leave those to your partner Don, don't you think?"

Mike believed that he was there to take care of his guests while entertaining his listeners. If either got out of hand, well, there would be the next guest tomorrow. He said;

"Sue, I think that the way people help out Kim and **Ron** in their work is well documented on their website, as well as the history of their missions where you will see that they don't carry firearms. Folks, that's all the time we have this morning, I'll be back for another ' **Way too early in the A.M.** ' tomorrow when my guest will be Judge Hector Q. Snobblestone to talk about the new speed cameras going up all over Middleton and how the Internet rumors claiming that driving while naked will disable them are false. Until then, remember that coffee is your friend and loves you."

The "ON-THE-AIR" sign in the little studio went dark.

"Kim? Miss Possible? Are you OK?" Mike looked at his guest with concern. She had been a pretty good guest, not as funny as her partner was. The last time he had them on the show was much more lighthearted. This time was...was like she was missing part of herself. She hadn't said more than a dozen words about herself. She was a young woman with a mission and that mission was to tell people that her partner had saved Middleton without her help and not only that, he had, in some way that she wouldn't elaborate on, saved her from a sexual assault.

"Mr. Metro, what I am going to tell you, I tell you in confidence. I ask that whatever you do with the information, please don't let it hurt Ron." Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her wallet and handed the radio personality a Federal Concealed Carry Permit issued by the Department of Homeland Security. After he had looked at the card, his eyes widening in amazement, she put it back and continued, "Ron and I both have these. The difference is that Ron has never carried a firearm except on the practice range. Until Saturday, I never carried one. Now?" Standing, she drew her Walther PPK and set it on the desk after checking to make sure a round wasn't loaded in the chamber and the safety was on. "Now?" she repeated, "I carry. It feels like I threw away part of my soul to make room for it."

"Have you ever used it?" whispered Mike.

Her answer was interrupted by Wade calling on her Kimmunicator, "Kim, is everything OK? Your interview was shorter than I was expecting. You're due to be at the Gazette for your next interview in thirty minutes."

"I'm OK, Wade, I'm on my way," she replied, putting her wallet and pistol away then addressing her host, "Thanks Mike, this should help clear up a little of the misunderstanding."

"Happy to help," replied the host watching the heroine (and in his mind, she was still a heroine) head for the door, "May God walk at your side, Kim."

She momentarily paused, answering, "God does as He will, Mike. I would rather have Ron walking at my side but I may have forfeited that blessing forever." Then she was out the door.

* * *

 **(Time: Tuesday after Prom, mid-afternoon.)**

"Go, Hana, Go!" Jason cheered as Hana did three back-to-back cartwheels with Tara running alongside her to be the little girl's spotter.

"Yea, Hana!" he cheered again as the small acrobat jumped out of Tara's arms into a backflip. "Uh, Tara, should you be showing her this stuff? She's liable to get hurt."

"Well, too much would be bad for her developing muscles and joints, but a little bit should be fine. Plus, she knows the rules, right Hana?" said the blonde cheerleader.

"Have spotter!" the little girl exclaimed, "Brother best spotter!"

"That's right, Hana," she replied, letting the small child step onto her hands and boosting her into another backflip, "Ron was the best spotter I ever had. Besides, Jason, we need to burn off some of Hana's energy and give Yori a break, I think this is the first sleep she's had in the last two days."

"Brother is awake!" the little girl started bouncing up and down.

"Let's go see him, Hana," Tara said, giving Jason a 'what the heck?' look.

* * *

"Mr. Robertson, simply print a correction! Or even better, spin it as a 'downtrodden young man wins against impossible odds, showing that a guy can win the day even in this politically correct day and age'," Kim was imagining that her pistol was softly whispering 'Shoot this bozo...'.

"So," the Editor grinned at her, "You wouldn't be inclined to use your eleven styles of Kung Ku on the writer that wrote, "Ron Stoppable Protects Middleton while Partner Protects Her Hairdo?"

"Less inclined than I am to try my **SIXTEEN** styles on a certain editor who is giving me a hard time!" Kim snarled thinking that there was a reason that junior high school girls should **not** be packing heat. Fumbling to get her phone to silence its insistent beeping, she checked her messages and read:

"Tara: Ron's awake! They are kicking us out for tests, you've got time to stop at B.N. and smuggle in Nacos."

Looking at the editor, she growled, "Just fix it!" and ran to the door.

* * *

"Master Sensei, Please excuse the interruption, but I have information you may be interested in," the very young courier bowed deeply. Her job was to deliver information briefings from the intelligence section to those that needed to know. This was her first official trip to take information to the head of the school and she was nervous.

The white-bearded senior Ninja looked up from the proposal from one of the school suppliers to change their training bo staffs from the traditional ash to polypropylene. They would be a little heavier, tougher and possibly more environmentally friendly. Still, tradition... Looking up, he smiled broadly and greeted his young visitor;

"Ah, Katsumi-kun, your interruption is most welcome. What has your group learned?"

"Kim Possible is doing web searches for teen crisis centers. She is looking for a discreet counselor. We assume that she desires help for some trauma encountered in the Drakken/Shego incident."

"Please request senior students Wang and Chin to join me for tea in thirty minutes. Along with yourself. Perhaps the four of us can come up with a solution to help the famous heroine."

"Hai!" the young student raced off thrilled to be a part of something that sounded so important.

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

 **Authors Note:** I had planned on ending this story tragically with this chapter in a blaze of bullets and Ninja throwing stars. Unfortunately, I saw a posting with short snippets of adorable puppies playing, so that chapter has been delayed as that cooled my Twitter Rage. With the talents of CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 assisting me with plot bunnies, I am no longer confident that I can kill everyone off at the end. Special thanks to Daccu65 in helping raise the angst level. Note that the idea of having Rufus keep Roachie up to date was from Mindless Violence Fan.


	4. Chapter 4

**(Time: Friday morning, Prom + 14)**

'Friday at last', thought Kim Possible, getting out of bed to get showered and dressed. Running down the stairs, she walked into the kitchen. This had been Ron's first full week back at school and he was doing well. The nerves and muscles in the right side of his face were working now, so he no longer had trouble eating and had lost the slur in his speech.

She remembered showing up at the hospital after Tara's text message with a bag of Nacos. The poor man couldn't open his mouth wide enough to eat them. Yori, to Kim's annoyance, had fed him many small bites of a Naco using a pair of chopsticks. Other things had yet to turn back to normal. Top on that list was that Ron no longer stopped by for a second breakfast with the Possibles and to walk to school with her.

Internally, she kicked herself because that had stopped two weeks before prom since she didn't have the time for him in the morning because she was spending that time with Eric instead. Her plan was to get Ron to spend tomorrow with her so she could work on fixing the damage caused by her mistakes, just because 'Anything is possible for a Possible' didn't mean it would be easy.

Anne saw her oldest child frowning at the table and thought the frown was because there wasn't a place set for Ron.

"Kimmy, no point in setting a place for Ron if he isn't going to show up and if he does drop by it will take ten seconds to set a place up for him."

"I know mom, it's just, well, I miss him."

"So, Kimmie-cub, Eric was a pretty straight-up guy, right?" her Dad spoke from behind his paper, "I mean except for the evil programming part."

"Yeah, Dad," Kim snarked, "Except for literally not having a heart, Eric was a real catch.", she sarcastically drawled out, "He was smart, funny, good looking and according to Drakken could do everything to me except actually get me pregnant!"

"No need to get hostile or crude there, Kimmie-cub, I was just thinking that you should be able to find a guy closer to Eric, than say, than _**Ronald**_..."

Grabbing a couple of pieces of fruit, Kim headed for the door, "Bye Mom, love you, **good day, Father!** "

Anne turned to her husband, "James, what the heck is wrong with you!"

"I'm just saying that she could do better than Ronald, that's all, honey."

"Yeah, mom. It's not like Dad recovered Eric's synthodrone casing," said Tim,

"and is making new syntho-goop and updating software for it..." added Jim.

The paper lowered and James glared at his sons.

"Gotta go, don't want to be late!" chimed both boys fleeing the kitchen.

Anne narrowed her eyes while James hid from her glare behind his paper.

* * *

STD 2018-

 **(Time: Lunchtime, place: Middleton Space Center cafeteria.)**

"James! Can I join you? I was looking for you earlier, but you weren't in your office."

"Certainly Vivian, I was going to take this back to the lab, but some sunshine would be good for me."

James Possible held the door for Dr. Vivian Porter, the Center's authority on robotics, the two found an empty table next to opened windows in the glassed-in seating area. It had all the ambiance of a fern-bar, but was protected from the elements and very popular as evidenced by the number of people sitting enjoying the spring weather.

"I analyzed those engrams that you gave me, they aren't your typical memory elements, these appear to control personality. The way they are structured, they are almost like GPS coordinates to find a person on a map of behavioral traits. Truly amazing."

"So if I had a collection of data created from say, personality typing tests, I could use these values to find the closest person in personality to a specific person?"

"Exactly, I'm thinking that these engrams could be a godsend for selecting compatible crews for deep space missions, nuclear submarines, things like that. Would you like to co-author a paper on them?", she asked.

"Actually, since you've done all the analysis and I didn't create them, I just reversed-engineered some of Dr. Drakken's technology, why don't you author the paper and give Dr. Drakken posthumous credit for the original work?"

"Are you sure you don't want credit? James, it could be important work?"

"No, you go ahead, I'll play with the data and see if I can come up with examples showing how well it works. If I do, you can give me credit for that work."

"Thanks, James, well, I want to get started, so I'll catch you later!" the enthusiastic blonde said, getting up and excited, she practically ran out of the cafeteria.

James took the rest of his lunch back to his secure lab. The lab that only he had access to. The lab where he was supposed to be completing his work on a prototype faster than light drive. The prototype was half finished but pushed to the side. Where the prototype used to have the place of pride on his main workbench, now lay the deflated casing of Eric. 'Maybe I'm going about this all wrong, instead of remaking a better Eric, I just have to create a "hottie boy" map, find the one closest to Eric and then arrange for Kimmie-Cub to meet him.'

Sitting down at his computer, he pulled databases from various places in the state and started combining them to create a database of the engram vectors he needed. Few of the databases available to the public had names in them, but assigning names to entries was sort of like an extended session of "Twenty Questions". After starting his computer scripts running gathering and compiling data on high school and college boys, he returned to his faster-than-light prototype and began wielding in the miniature Jeffries tubes. Being a miniature working model, these tubes were far too small for people to fit into, but maybe a molerat? Pausing, he wondered, "Why did I think of a molerat?"

* * *

STD 2018-

 **(Time: Friday afternoon, just after last period.)**

Kim stopped by her locker to put her books away. She had caught up on everything in study hall, even her AP Math homework thanks to, unbelievably, Ron Stoppable.

Last week, several NASA engineers had shown up at Ron's house to fit him with a half-mask to cover the still healing areas and the areas that would never heal. They were friends of Wade and by Saturday, Ron had a half-mask to cover his injuries, a mask that could withstand the heat of reentry and stop a rifle bullet. Everyone agreed that was pretty excessive, but Wade insisted.

"So, girlfriend, where's the Phantom of the Naco?"

"Monique! Don't call him that!" Ron had been in class all week wearing his white ceramic mask covering much of the right side of his face. Today, people weren't even giving him a second look. He did look like the character in the opera and yesterday at lunch he said that he was considering getting a black cape. She had actually breathed a sigh of relief when he made that joke because the injury had changed him. He was now much more serious and focused, particularly in his studies. An example was the assistance that he gave her during study hall for their Nonlinear Differential Equations homework assignment. He demonstrated knowledge of material they had been shown weeks ago. The scariest part wasn't that he was now smarter, but that he no longer called her 'KP', but instead:

"Hey, **Kimberly Ann** , no cheerleading practice today?" said the blond coming up to open the locker next to hers.

"Hi, Ron. No, they are treating the floors or something, all activities in the gym are canceled until next week. Uh, we were going to spend all day Saturday after the prom together and things got sort of crazy. Are you busy tomorrow?"

"As I recall, a lot of the things that we were going to talk about have been overtaken by events. Drakken is out of the picture, so Bueno Nacho is voting in a less villainous chairman of the board and the bendy straws are coming back."

"We were also going to talk about us..." Kim pointed out.

"I believe that you were going to tell me that you were going to become a 'normal girl', and at best, I would be a mere acquaintance who would work alone with Wade and Rufus on save-the-world missions."

"I hadn't decided to do that," the redhead protested.

"Perhaps not, Kimberly Ann, but can you honestly tell me that you weren't thinking of it?"

"No," said a very small voice.

"Don't leave," Monique ordered Kim, then put her arm around Ron's neck and dragged him off to the side, telling him, "Step into my office, Phantom."

"Monique, we're still in the hall."

"It's a philosophical office. Now listen to your old Aunt Monique..."

"You're not my..."

"Honey, I'm giving advice here so just pretend for two damned minutes, OK?"

"Yes, Auntie Mo'," a small grin might have appeared on the face of the blond.

"First, stop calling her 'Kimberly Ann'. The only person who ever called her that was Zorpox...and you ain't him."

"Are you certain?" this time a grin was definitely on the face of the blond.

"Yes, I'm certain," the dark beauty glared at him and unconsciously made a fist with her right hand, "Now you are going to go over to her, call her 'KP' and agree to meet her for breakfast at her house. Then you are going to take her to the park to walk and talk for a while, then both of you will come to the mall and meet me at Club Banana at noon and take me to lunch. Then we will go back to Club Banana and I will show you this cape that I special ordered for you. After that, you two are on your own. Got that?"

"Her father doesn't like me," Ron pointed out.

"Fine, meet at your house for breakfast then. And never, ever speak the words, 'Kimberly Ann' again." She turned him around and shoved him toward the redhead.

"KP?"

"Yes, Ron?"

"Would you like to meet me at my house in the morning around 8:30 for breakfast? I thought that after breakfast we could go for a walk in the park, meet Monique for lunch around noon, perhaps do some shopping at Club Banana and then maybe see a movie."

"That sounds great Ron," Kim was heartened by the 'see a movie' part as that wasn't in Monique's script. Emboldened, she asked, "Can I walk home with you?"

"Certainly Kimber... KP. Let me put my books away."

* * *

STD 2018-

The pair walked in silence on the route that would take them both home. Passing the Bueno Nacho, Kim desperately wanted him to suggest that they pop in for 'snackage'. She thought about making the suggestion herself but figured that his agreeing to spend Saturday with her was victory enough for one afternoon. She suddenly paled at the thought that she was now afraid of how her actions would be perceived by the one person whose unconditional acceptance she had never doubted for over a decade. 'If he had spoken up earlier about wanting to date me and if I had been smart enough to give him a chance, then I wouldn't be here now,' she thought. Then, remembering how he started to ask her to be his date for his cousin's wedding and how that went south made her wish she had jumped at the chance. If they had crashed and burned as boyfriend/girlfriend back then, surely, they could have remained best friends. She remembered the saying 'friends help you move, best friends help you move bodies'. Now she believed that Ron wouldn't even ask her to help move, not after she refused to help him check out a suspicion about one of their known foes. Maybe they weren't friends at all anymore... That thought made her stomach hurt.

"Are you feeling OK, Kim? Er, KP?" That boy had always had the bad habit of perceiving her moods at the wrong time.

"Ron, you can call me whatever you like. Monique isn't really gonna beat you down. But the only time you ever called me 'Kimberly Ann' was when you saw me as an adversary. The thought that you would think that of me hurts me. Mo' was correct on that."

"OK, I'll work on it. I certainly don't see you as a serious adversary. So, what's bothering you?"

Kim was trying to get up the courage to ask if he still saw them as friends when his strong arms wrapped around her and the ground disappeared beneath her feet.

* * *

STD 2018-

"Jean, come in and have a seat. I'm sorry you didn't bring Hana, she's such a joy to see," Anne waved her friend over to a chair in front of her desk and she sat down in the second chair next to it.

"Hana is spending the day with 'her guy's'. Gene and Rufus are with her now, Ron will join them after school. Can you believe that he is already teaching her to cook? I came home early the other day to find him helping her knead dough for cinnamon rolls. The kitchen looked like a flour bomb went off, but he cleaned it up and then gave Hana a bath to clean her up while I baked them. They were OK, a little tough and chewy from Hana overworking the dough," the proud 'soon to be' mother explained.

"So, Ron seems pretty normal, then?" Anne took a folder off of her desk.

"Only around Hana." A cloud of concern went across Jean's face, "Without Hana, it's like his normal goofy joy has been sucked out of him. He used to stop at your house for a second breakfast and then walk to school with Kimberly... you haven't seen him lately, have you?"

"No, he hasn't been by the house that I know of since a couple of weeks before the prom."

"That's what I figured. He said something about how he expects Kim to break off their being 'best friends' to be 'just friends' and for some reason, he thinks that James disapproves of him as a boy."

Anne showed a look of frustration, "If that's true, then both of them are idiots. Without Ron, our daughter would be dead long before now..." taking a deep breath, she continued, "I miss him and I know Kimmy misses him. She blames herself for him getting hurt and is worried that she has thrown away the best friend she will ever have. Oh, I got a call from Mr. Barkin. He was telling me that the quality of Ron's school work has greatly improved and if I could replicate that surgery, he has a list of candidates..."

After a short pause, she continued, "Speaking of Kimmy, I understand that you sent Kimmy home the Monday before last."

"Yes, we had just gotten back from Japan and the poor girl was a wreck. Gene drove her home, fed her a late lunch and sent her off up to bed."

"Jessica said that you and Tara went to talk to her?"

"Yes, we did, didn't I mention that the poor girl is having a hard time dealing with the events around prom?" Jean said.

"You mentioned that. I believe that she is seeing a counselor. Care to share any details about what happened?"

"I'm dying to tell you but the **IWTYM** protocol was used," Jean confessed.

"The 'I Won't Tell Your Mom' if you talk to me? REALLY? Is this for that time when Ron...?"

"No, Anne, this isn't karma or payback. You promised Ron that you wouldn't tell me that one time and I think it was for the best."

"Twice. I had to use it twice with Ron," Anne said.

"Twice? Really?... Gonna have to have a talk with that boy. Just like you need to have a talk with Kim. My price for not spilling my guts was that she sees a counselor. Maybe you should talk to the counselor."

"They don't share information about patients. And Tara isn't talking either." Anne tilted her head and looked at her friend with slowly widening eyes.

"Nope, the puppy dog pout doesn't work on me. Seriously, you know how doctors have a release of information form where you list the people who they can talk to about you? I know your name is on it because I was there when she filled it out. Talk to her Anne, she wants to tell you, she's afraid that if she does, you won't love her anymore. And before you ask, I saw the paperwork, but I don't know who the counselor is."

* * *

STD 2018-

Kim felt Ron's arms slide off of her when they landed at the bottom of the GJ transport tube.

Will Du greeted them, "Good afternoon Miss Possible, we decided that our meeting could not be put off any longer.", his smile seemingly sincere. His smile now much less sincere as he turned to Ron, "Mr. Stoppable, I'm sorry to have bothered you. We really only wanted to debrief Kimberly, so if you will step back in the tube, we will send you on your way."

"No thanks.", he shot back. "But, perhaps it would be a good idea for me to hear her answers as well."

Kim turned back to Ron, looking stricken at the accusatory tone of his voice only to see him give her a small wink.

"Very well. Miss Possible, I must ask that you hand over your weapon before we go any further," the top agent held out a small box for her to place her gun in.

"Du, this is Kim 'Freakin' Possible!" Ron talked over Kim's spluttering objection, "She doesn't need a Walther PPK chambered for .380 ACP rounds along with two spare mags for fighting 'High School' evil. Don't believe me, you've got a metal detector in your hand, check her!" Ron pushed her forward, stumbling a little, she almost collided with the Top Agent.

The Top Agent scanned the scowling cheerleader. Finding nothing, the Top Agent started to tell them to follow him when Ron put his hands high on the wall with his legs back and spread,

"Better scan me too, maybe she only keeps me around to carry her rifles and cases of grenades."

Rolling his eyes, the Top Agent made a perfunctory pass over the blond's torso and down his legs to the floor.

"Now if you will follow me please," the Top Agent shook his head, obviously annoyed at having to deal with such unprofessional children.

Kim walked down the hall with Ron close to her side. She felt a little thrill when she felt his hand touch her back at her waist but was a little disappointed when she felt him slide her pistol back into her holster inside her waistband, then pull her shirt down to hide the bump.

* * *

STD 2018-

Ron's laughter sent icy chills of dread down Kim's spine. She had heard that laugh before from Ron when the Attitudinator had infused Ron with Drakken's evil mental energies. Okay, there was some provocation here. Dr. Director had just told them off for their actions on prom night but to unleash Zorpox seemed a little extreme.

She relaxed a little when he continued, in his normal voice, "This would be even funnier if I didn't get the impression that you would have preferred that Kim and I were dead instead of Drakken and Shego. No, no, just wait a moment, Mr. Top Agent sir. Let me summarize. If you keep talking, I fear that Kimberly Ann will pull out her pistol and even if .380 bullets aren't the deadliest, I have been told that they sting like a son of a biscuit." Looking at the eye-patched Director of Global Justice, he continued, "With your permission, of course, Madam Director." His tone almost mocking.

"Please, Mr. Stoppable, let's hear your summary," she replied, shooting a glare at her Top Agent.

"Global Justice had the same information as Team Possible but chose not to act on it. Yet somehow, it is Kimberly Ann's fault that the plot was not stopped? Then when I acted alone to investigate and reported via Wade of our findings to Global Justice and others, I found myself fighting Shego and in that fight, the power transmitter was destroyed, setting back Drakken's attack on the world by two to three days. Now GJ is telling me that if I had quietly died without blowing up the transmitter, that would have been better because?" Ron motioned for the Top Agent to fill in the next part.

"Drakken and Shego would have been captured alive and taken into custody. Maybe if you had surrendered, then Shego would have only captured you as they have done in the past..." Agent Du pointed out.

"Ah yes, that's right, they had drugged Kimberly Ann and planned to rape her, but sidekicks get invited in for milk and cookies. But that didn't happen, apparently, and I pissed off Shego so much that she decides to burn off my face instead. Or maybe she just didn't like it to start with?" he tapped his ceramic half-mask for emphasis.

"And that's another thing! Do you really expect us to believe that you were saved by giant cockroaches?" the Top Agent protested.

Ron looked at the Director and held up his Kimmunicator, "Say the word, ma'am and I can have them here in a couple of hours as evidence."

Her calm, aloof demeanor almost cracking, "No, Mr. Stoppable, that isn't necessary. Please continue with your summary."

"By the time Kimberly Ann got my burnt, broken butt to the hospital, her brothers and father had finished their examination of the little toys. Adding what they found out to what Wade and I discovered about Drakken's transmission scheme, they believed that Drakken was one or two days away from activating the toys to take over the world using a low power signal such as one from the transmitter in the Nebraska lair. A higher power signal would shorten that time. The transmission tower that we blew up could have the first Diablos activated in another thirty minutes."

Ron stopped pacing and paused to take a drink of water; clearly trying to get his anger under control. The Director was watching him very...closely. Of all the people in the room, including two armed-security guards, she judged him to be the most dangerous. She made a mental note to talk to Dr. Anne Possible to see if the brain trauma he had suffered was to areas affecting personality. She paid attention when he set his glass back on the table and resumed speaking.

"Now Kimberly Ann didn't stop to ask for help or discuss jurisdiction or anything, she had Wade get her a ride so she could do what she has done many times in the past: She. Saved. The. World. Actually, that's not totally accurate. The planet would have been fine. But, she saved many of the current governments from being violently overthrown. Saved a lot of people's lives. Like many of Team Possible missions, the lair blew up. This time, Drakken and Shego died instead of getting away. Which, seeing as blowing up the lair only delayed the attack, was a Good Thing. Now you guys... who have been unable to keep the pair in prison... are trying to tell me that she should have let them kill her, if necessary, for them to get captured so they could escape... with all the little toys still in place around the world?"

The Top Agent interrupted, "Drakken and Shego didn't die in the explosion, that is another thing we need to discuss. Autopsies of the two show that Drakken suffered nine gunshot wounds..."

"Kimberly Ann!" Ron interjected, "That's outrageous! Were you using +P, 90 grain jacketed hollow points? Those are more than a dollar a round! Had your aim been better, you could have used fewer rounds and had money left over for a Grande sized Naco and a soda!"

Kim held her head in shame, "Sorry Ronnie, I'll have to practice more. And Wade selected lower muzzle velocity ball rounds because he believed that maybe I wouldn't want to kill with a single shot. But it was the first time I gunned down a villain."

"Kimberly, Kimberly, Kimberly, this isn't a TV cop show. You need to use the type of round that if you hit someone in the face, the round will fragment and a fragment will blow out their brain stem. If you hit them in the chest, you want a fragment to sever their spine. Shredding their heart is useless, that is fatal, but not immediately disabling. You don't pull out a gun unless you intend to use it and if you shoot someone, you are shooting to instantly disable, then kill. At least to drop them with the first shot, so they can't shoot back while you stand around hoping that they bleed out before they shoot you or someone you are defending. DO. YOU. UNDERSTAND?"

"Yes Ronnie, I understand. I'm sorry," Kim looked like she was about to be physically ill.

The Top Agent pressed on, "Shego, on the other hand, had several nearly healed gunshot wounds, including three to her head. The coroner said the gunshot wounds probably weren't the cause of death, but that he wasn't sure if the actual cause of death was the general organ failure caused by Polonium-210 poisoning or the fact that her head was chopped off!"

"Ma'am," the potentially crazy blond got serious addressing the Director, "Kimberly Ann killed Drakken and Shego. At the end of the day, dead is dead, no matter how they got that way. I believe we all know that this is the first time that she has killed anyone and that she had an unbelievable degree of provocation and responsibility on her shoulders. Failure was not an option at that point. To have failed would have resulted in her death and most likely the deaths of thousands of innocent people who will never know what she did for them. Certainly, they don't know what killing them cost her and I'm not sure you do either!"

"Mr. Stoppable. Putting aside the details of how Dr. Drakken and Shego died for the moment, we currently have hundreds of thousands of these Lil' Diablo toys scattered around the world ready for the next supervillain to take control of and wreak havoc with. Just what do you suggest we do about them? What **are you** going to do about them?" the Director gave Ron her best icy stare. "Drakken invented them and, to the best of our knowledge, he maintained all information on them on his person. His personal information storage media was destroyed in the lair."

"I'd suggest that you all should look at the information in Wade's data logs and figure out a new software load to 'brick' them. As for Kimberly Ann and me, well, we stopped this one... you can have the next supervillain. However, if you want some advice from a buffoon, why don't YOU activate them, take control of them, and command each one to march into the nearest, active volcano?"

He held out his hand to Kim. "Come, Kimberly Ann, we are outta here." The redhead obediently took his hand and he led her to the door. Stopping at the keypad lock, he tried two combinations and on the third, the door slid open. "You really shouldn't let people pick their own PIN codes," he said on the way out, the door closing behind the pair.

"Agent Du?"

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"Why did you let Miss Possible keep her sidearm?"

"I wanted to see if Team Possible could think on their feet, ma'am. Mr. Stoppable did a nice little bit of misdirection and sleight-of-hand to get it in. Besides, Miss Possible is a good guy, she wouldn't shoot me no matter how much I annoy her."

"You are living dangerously, Agent."

"Dr. Director?"

"Yes, Agent Du?"

"Stoppable's crazy and Possible's submissive behaviors are just acting, right?"

"I'm afraid that this encounter has broken Possible's spirit. I don't see her as much of a serious threat or a useful ally in crimefighting. Maybe someday she might recover. Stoppable has always been dangerous and is acting like he might be a threat. We'd better keep an eye on Stoppable to make sure that is just an act."

"Yes, Ma'am."

* * *

STD 2018-

The ground by the Bueno Nacho briefly opened up and deposited two teens on the sidewalk then closed without a trace. The blond released the redhead from another tight embrace and continued to walk down the sidewalk as if nothing had happened.

"Ron, wait up a second!" the redhead asked, still looking a little green around the gills.

The blond stopped and turned around, inquiring, "Yes, KP? I thought we were going home before we were so rudely interrupted."

"Can we talk about what just happened?"

"We can talk about that and anything you want tomorrow, I need to get home. I'm supposed to be helping Dad and Rufus with Hana's 'Day with Her Guys'.

His look softening a little, he held out his hand, "Come on, I'll walk you home. It's not really out of my way."

Taking his hand and not letting go, she walked down the sidewalk beside him.

"Do you hate me?" she asked, looking straight ahead, blinking tears from her eyes.

"No, why would I hate you?"

"Why were you so mean to me in the meeting with Global Justice?"

"I don't really know, something told me that I needed to make them worry about me and not about you."

"Why? That doesn't make sense."

"Many things don't make sense to me. I was going to guess that you thought I hated you because you like Eric more than me." he sounded puzzled.

"I still like you! I always liked you! I just got caught up in Eric being all new, shiny and popular. He," she paused trying to figure out a way to say it that didn't make her seem like a shallow jerk. Not thinking of one, she pressed on, comforted by the warmth of his hand in hers, "He was the thing I needed to beat Bonnie at the food chain game. But you know how that all turned out..."

"No, actually I haven't heard, whatever happened to Eric? At school, it's like he never existed."

Stunned, she told him the story of her prom night, from the great beginning to the tragic ending. Somehow, he had not connected her sexual assault threat with Eric.

"So, you think that the reason that Shego was able to burn my face half off was that the roaches were delayed by 'saving your virtue' and if they had been a couple minutes earlier, they would have helped me beat Shego?" he asked.

"Well, yeah, isn't that what happened?"

"You know, it's too bad we couldn't have swapped places..." Ron pondered.

"WHAT!?" she was taken off-guard by the non-sequitur.

"Sure, think of it, you would have kicked Shego's butt by yourself saving the world and the next day, I'd be bragging to all the guys how the smoking hot Erica 'took my virtue'.

Kim stopped and by refusing to let go of his hand, stopped him. She stared into the soft brown eyes that she had seen for years, looking for any sign that he was making fun of her. Seeing none, she thought about them swapping places. An image of him strutting around the next day brag-asking their classmates, "Have you seen my virtue? Erica took it last night and now I can't find it anywhere," popped into her brain. She snickered and then started laughing. She threw her arms around him, saying, "Thanks Ron".

She released him after noticing that he didn't hug her back. Still, one step at a time. Smiling, she walked up to her porch still holding his hand.

"So... Does that mean that I," Ron tapped on his white mask, "paid for your virtue?"

Her mouth hung open for a second. She was sure he was teasing her! She felt her heart do a happy cartwheel. "Yep, you bought and paid for it, Ronnie," she teased back, putting one hand on her hip and jutting it out in what she hoped was a sexy looking pose, "just tell me where and when you want it delivered."

The front door opened, "Hi Kimmie-cub, Hello _**Ronald,"**_ James greeted his daughter and growled at 'that boy', "Ronald, good to see you up and around. I thought cheer practice was canceled today."

"It was, Father," Kim replied coolly, "Ron was walking me home when GJ snatched us for a meeting they forgot to tell us about."

"Nice to see you Mr. Dr. Possible. If you will excuse me, Dad and Hana are expecting me." Without any further words or gestures, Ron turned and continued on to his house.

As Ron walked on to his house, Kim glared at her Dad, James glared at Ron, and Ron noticed a government sedan parked across the street and down one house - a vacant house. If he remembered Wade's notes on local government license plate numbers correctly, the first two digits of '72' indicated that the vehicle belonged to the State Department of Child Protective Services. "Maybe I should make tomorrow's breakfast something that can be eaten on the run," he thought to himself.

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

 **Authors Note:** My thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for pelting me with plot bunnies and ideas. They are effectively my betas and sorely underpaid. Heck, they are underpaid as writers too.

Also, in this chapter, the part where Kim thinks that Ron "brag-asking" about whether anyone has seen his lost "virtue" would be funny. If the situation was reversed and Kim had given Eric her "virtue" willingly, I wonder if she would be bragging about it in the locker room after cheer practice? I don't see her as the braggy kind of person, but still, I would like to think that she could have. One of those equality things I suppose.


	5. Chapter 5

**(Time: Saturday Afternoon, Prom + 22 days)**

 **Middleton Airport:**

"Well Kim here's where I get into line for TSA," the blond teen said as the heroine pulled her childhood friend into a warm hug, not wanting this to occur. Heck, she wanted to howl with rage at the heavens for pulling this stunt. Was it only last week that she had walked to Ron's house for breakfast to see a "For Sale" sign in front of their house? Why did they have to move to Japan to live with Hana anyway? Children should come to live with their parents!

"I understand you having to leave to be with your parents in Japan, but you never answered my question about when you're coming back..."

He sighed, "I'm not ready for that discussion yet, Kim since I'm still a little messed up mentally from Shego's plasma and my face interacting."

"Well Shego and her blue boss are in tinfoil-lined caskets now," the heroine grimaced, "At least with Alpha particle poisoning, they didn't need to use lead..."

Ron, his body a little stiff from the embrace, cautioned, "You shouldn't have done that Kim, Big Brother is going to have his eye on you from now on. They won't fully trust you for a long time you know. Your life as a crimefighter might be tarnished for life."

The redhead shrugged, "If 'Big Brother' would have kept his eye on Drakken, I wouldn't have had to do it. The way you told them off at my debriefing, I suspect that their eye is on you more than me. Anyway, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs..."

The blond snorted, "Then you should at least pick the shell pieces out before you whip the eggs up."

"A little extra calcium is good for a body. Besides, you should have seen the looks I got when I showed up at the firing range with an ax on my belt.", she smirked before turning more serious, "Ron, your grades have really improved over this semester... but how are you really doing mentally?"

"K... Kim, I'm not sure myself, there are so many ideas going through my head right now I have to keep taking calming breaths to not go insane. I'm missing memories and I have memories that aren't mine." Blushing a bit, he continued, "For example, I have the memory of struggling to put on a sports bra and then wearing a cheerleader outfit..."

"Nope," the redhead giggled, "that's a real memory. That's the mission where we swapped bodies for a couple of days."

"That does explain why I never looked in a mirror, I didn't want to embarrass you by seeing you naked. But it's all so frustrating! I was looking at mission records to see if they would help, but it is totally hit or miss! I can remember Gil Moss when I was at Camp Wannaweep, I swapped his crafts classes for my swimming classes. I remember that like yesterday, but I don't remember the two times I fought him after he mutated!"

"You don't remember getting a kiss from Tara?"

"Tara kissed me?!"

"What about the time Yori kissed you?"

"Oh, come on! Now you're just yanking my chain!"

"Nope. I was there, I saw it. A kiss on the cheek both times, but it was a kiss. And Ron, I want you to remember this," throwing her arms around his neck, she pulled herself up to kiss him. At first, it seemed like he wasn't taking it, but then he relaxed and kissed her back.

Ron looked at her for a moment then said, "I'm leaving Rufus with you to help out if you decide to go back to doing missions..."

"I can't save the world without you, Ron."

"Yeah, you can Kim. I have to get better if I'm going to be able to run alongside you. It's like Dad says, we shouldn't be indispensable, we each need a backup to step in when needed. You can take my place, but I can't really take your place and that limits your options. I've put my head in the sand before, but now I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel."

Kim giggled at the reference as she released her lifelong friend, "Well let's hope that light isn't an oncoming train."

At that, Ron laughed, "With my luck, it would be. I'll try to make contact sometime this week to see where all this goes, Kim. Take care of her, little buddy. Bye." With that, no further hug or kiss on the cheek or anything, Ron Stoppable hoisted his small backpack on his shoulder and turned to walk down the corridor to get into the line for security.

She heard Ron's little buddy sniffle. Reaching up to her shoulder, she gave him a pet. Turning to look at him, she saw the strange blue eyes that he sometimes had. This time the look in his eyes sent a shiver of dread down her spine. "We're never going to see him again, are we?"

"Nuh-uh."

* * *

STD 2018-

 **(Time: Tuesday, Oh-Dark-Thirty, Prom + 3 years)**

The team commander slipped up to his lead sniper whispering "Has Rufus gone in? It looks like another squad of armored synthodrones is approaching to reinforce the facility. Our casualties are going to be steep if we have to fight our way through them all."

"Yes sir, I saw Rufus and his handler slip through an air vent on the east side seven minutes ago. Shall I tell them to abort the mission?

"Seven minutes... No, we wait. His handler said that she should be able to get Rufus into position in approximately six minutes and to allow two minutes for him to shut down the zero-point energy generators. With the lair on backup power, none of the armored synthodrones will be able to fight."

The two men dressed in black waited, and sure enough, a minute later, many of the lights in the castle went out. A dozen men in black combat uniforms stormed the castle. A few bursts of automatic weapon fire were heard right before the team withdrew, carrying what looked like a silver thermos, the PDVI.

Later, Kim sat on a seat on the transport plane back to the states, Rufus in her lap, snacking on a cheese stick. Everybody that went by high-fived the little hero.

"This isn't what I expected when the Office of Military Support called me up and offered me a job. Somehow I thought I'd be doing more of the action stuff and not just the 'Naked Mole Rat Handler'."

Rufus swallowed a mouthful of cheese, "Aw, sorry," he squeaked, patting her hand.

"It's not your fault, Rufus. You saved a lot of lives today and that's the important thing. Still, I miss the days when it was just me, you, Ron, and Wade, you know? We should have followed him to Japan," a single tear ran down her cheek, "Maybe we could have helped when the Aliens destroyed Japan looking for the Great Blue. Maybe we could have saved him. Maybe I could have at least died with Wade trying to save him..."

The aircraft turned and sunlight from an open window shone into her eyes. She tried to reach the window shade but something was holding her arm. Looking next to her she saw a young oriental girl dressed in a sailor suit school uniform straight out of an anime. The girl reached up and touched her forehead.

"My brother is damaged. You have the missing parts in here. Help him or he will die alone. Please help him."

"Can I save him? Or do I prevent him from dying alone by dying with him?" Kim asked.

"Does it really matter to you?" the young girl asked. "Please help him."

Dragging herself into consciousness, she found the sun from her bedroom window shining in her eyes. A small dark-haired child was sleeping in the crook of her arm with Rufus curled up sleeping on her stomach.

"Isn't that just the most adorable thing you ever saw Anne?" Mrs. Stoppable took a picture before reaching over to gently extract the sleeping child while Anne pulled down the window shade with one hand and scooped up a snoozing Rufus with the other.

"Oh my gosh! What time is it? I was supposed to meet Ron for breakfast at his house at 8:30!" Kim scrambled out of bed.

"Ron is at his house cooking breakfast for you two, honey," Ron's mother told the still awakening teen, "You were sleeping so hard that your alarm didn't wake you, so I called and told him that we were going to let you sleep. You must have really looked sleepy because the next thing we know, Hana climbed up the stairs and crawled into bed with you."

Anne looked carefully at her daughter, "You look rattled, honey, is something the matter?"

"I just had the strangest dream, mom. It seemed pretty real but turned disturbing," she replied.

"Was it about cheese? Maybe it was Rufus sleeping on you? We'll get out of your way, honey," Anne told her, "Take a shower, get dressed and go meet Ronald for breakfast. He'll be waiting for you."

* * *

STD 2018-

James sat back in his chair, looked at his watch, and swore. It was early morning. He had told Anne he needed to head back to the lab after dinner and work late and that was partly true, the FTL prototype was coming together better than he had expected and he was ahead of schedule. The database run of potential boys for Kimmie had completed last night and he had programmed a two-dimensional display that was effectively a map showing the personality distance of each boy from Eric in the center. Amazingly, Ron Stoppable was, by far, the closest to Eric. Convinced that he had made a mistake, he had checked and rechecked the database and the processing scripts. At a loss to find his mistake, he was waiting in Vivian's office for her when she came to work. He greeted her with hot coffee, fresh donuts, and data to examine. Her keen mind immediately saw a pattern he had missed and she suggested one more transform to run. Rerunning the data in her office, the data was now a three-dimensional map. Not only was Eric's data point now directly over Ron's, it was now clear that Eric was Ron with another two or three years of maturity.

Leaving an excited Vivian already planning on how to present his data in her paper, James walked back down to his lab. Deciding he would emulate one of his heroes, Thomas Edison, he took some ibuprofen for his muscle aches then stretched out on his couch. A quick nap and he would be good to go...

* * *

STD 2018-

Moonlight shone into the bedroom, gently bathing the pair on the bed in a silvery light. The redhead, wearing an emerald satin teddy, rolled over draping an arm and a leg over the dark-haired studmuffin with the dreamiest chocolate eyes.

"You know Eric, the way you show respect to Daddy really gets my rockets going," she murmured, running her fingers through his hair and kissing him lightly on the lips. "Why, he told me just last night that for my fortieth birthday, he might add some peripherals to that gorgeous Ken-doll body of yours."

The door opened and a woman clothed only in green flames staggered into the room turning the silver light in the room to emerald green. Her torn and broken body, healed itself as they looked on in horror.

"Cupcake?", the woman whispered, "Come to me. I love you, I always have. Couldn't you tell that I spared you injury in all our fights? That buffoon of yours didn't protect you! I protected you!"

"But, but," the redhead stuttered trying to explain, "You're a woman, I like guys!"

"You don't like guys.", she smirked. "That's why you are sleeping with a synthodrone," the woman's voice was no longer a hoarse whisper, but a purring, deep contralto, her body completely healed and beautiful under the green flames licking over sensuous curves.

"Come with me, my princess, you don't really want a battery powered boyfriend when you could have me, a real human with real love and desire for you." she murmured, holding out a hand and repeating, "Come with me, these flames will never burn you."

A blond-haired man stepped through the open bedroom window. "Hello Kimberly Ann, remember me?" The scarred and burned parts of his face were clearly visible and made all the more grotesque by the flickering green light. "I'm the one who paid the price to protect your virtue," he laughed wickedly. Pointing to the hideous wounds on his face he continued, "This is the price I paid. That means that your virtue belongs to me. I've come to collect your debt." Snapping his fingers, he held out his hand, "Come with me. You owe me"

The redhead slowly got off the bed and reached out a slender hand to...

James sat up with a gasp, almost falling off the couch.

As he sprang up, refreshed by the nap, he had his eureka moment, 'I don't need a better Eric to replace that Ronald, I need an Erica. It could be a double threat, if Kimmie-cub likes girls, she gets a Ron replacement. If she doesn't then Erica can go after Ron and my baby will have to find a better guy.' Feeling hot, he walked over and turned on the lab air chiller, then pulling out a plasma cutter and laser welder, he got ready to work on the synthodrone casing stretched out on his workbench.

Looking at the naked synthodrone 'skin', James put the laser cutter down. He was an engineer, not a sculptor dammit! The only artist he knew was that Josh Mankey boy that Kimmie-cub had dated a couple of times. Nice kid, not as good as Eric, but better than Ron. No, he couldn't ask Josh for help, he needed to give Erica the body of a real woman, not a teen-aged hormone-driven caricature of one. So he would need a model that he could feed into the Space Center's computer-controlled fabricator. He decided to make the model using the woman who had caught his eye all those years ago, the only woman that still visited his dreams, Anne Credible. Pulling out his phone, he started copying all the pictures of Anne that he had on that. Then he connected to the desktop computer in his office where he stored backups of all his digital photos. Using an image recognition photo search tool, he commanded it to fetch all pictures of Anne. Seeing that it would take a while, he returned to working on his FTL prototype.

* * *

STD 2018-

It was 9:33 AM when Kim ran up to the Stoppable's front door and knocked.

Yori opened the door, "Ohayo gozaimasu," she said brightly, "Please come in Kim-san. Ronald is in the kitchen waiting for you."

"Yori, you're staying here?" Kim tried to sound pleasantly conversational.

"Yes!" she answered happily, "I am technically Hana's legal guardian and Stoppables have been most kind to allow me to continue my studies on business contracting while in America. I am currently studying real estate contracts," Yori waved Kim toward the kitchen. Moving back to the living room, the young Ninja rejoined a pair of gentlemen in suits. They had briefcases opened and papers spread over the coffee table.

"Come on in KP!" she heard Ron call from the kitchen.

"Sorry I'm late, Ron," she stopped wondering exactly what Yori was up to and walked into the kitchen.

"No worries, it's all ready," he waved over to the table, set for two people, "have a seat. I baked Scotch Eggs and made 'bubble and squeak' for us. Yori and her visitors were kind enough to be my guinea pigs."

"Bubble... and. _Squeak_?"

"That's what the Brits call potato pancakes with leftover veggies," he laughed, putting a plate of food in front of her with two golden brown globes and two fried cakes of indeterminate vegetable matter sprinkled with cheese in front of her.

Slicing one of the globes in two, she found it was a soft-boiled egg, with the center slightly runny, that had been wrapped in cheese and taco meat and then covered in toasted corn tortilla crumbs. The flat cakes were, as he described, a potato cake made with cabbage, onion, and shredded carrots.

They started on their food and Kim found that, whatever had happened to Ron, his cooking skills were still unparalleled. Ron seemed happy to follow Kim's lead on conversation topics and she kept the conversation focused on light and safe topics. She would save the hard topics for their time in the park, for now, she wanted to pretend that all was right in her world.

Seeing that Kim had finished her second Scotch Egg along with her 'bubble and squeak', he asked, "Well, what do you think about the breakfast?"

"These eggs are great!" she replied, "Are they hard to make?" finishing her orange juice.

Ron just looked at her as if he was thinking hard. "Not for me, how are your cooking skills?"

"Are you teasing me? You know I was a total disaster in the kitchen until you taught me to at least not be a danger to myself or others last year!"

"Really." he thought for a second, then continued, "Odd, I don't remember that..."

"Oh," she frowned, remembering the dream, "have you noticed gaps in your memory?"

"Pardon the interruption," Yori poked her head into the kitchen, "but the real estate salesman and the lawyer have completed the paperwork. Ron, I am going to go meet up with your mother at the Possible's house now."

"OK, Yori, KP and I are going to take a walk in the park and then meet someone for lunch. Would you like to join us later for lunch? I think you would like Monique..."

All the air seemed to rush out of the room as Kim heard tapping in the front yard. Blowing past Yori, she ran out the front door. There she saw one of the men that had been working with Yori give a friendly wave and drive off. The tapping had been a 'For Sale' sign being planted in the ground.

* * *

STD 2018-

"Possible-san, take a drink of this tea, please. It has a minor stimulant and should make you feel better," Kim found herself sitting in the recliner in Ron's front room and Yori held a straw to her lips. She felt a little feverish even with a cool, wet cloth on her forehead and another on her stomach with the ceiling fan turned on.

"What happened?" she asked after taking a sip of an icy, bitter tea of some sort.

"You ran outside, saw the 'For Sale' sign and collapsed."

"It was just like in my dream," she murmured, trying to figure out how not to sound crazy.

"It was Hana," Yori held up her cellphone showing a message from Mrs. Stoppable reading 'aren't they the cutest!' with a picture of Kim asleep with Hana snuggled up to her and Rufus sleeping on her stomach.

"Hana?" Kim sounded doubtful.

"Hana is a very special little girl. I fear that the dream you had contains a warning of a potential future."

Kim Possible was the daughter of a surgeon and an engineer. She was inclined to be skeptical about anything she couldn't explain, but, there was a lot of things that she and Ron had run into that she could not explain. Yet.

"Wait. Yori, why do you say that 'you fear'?"

"Kim-san, there is the real danger that you become focused on what might happen in the future that you get blindsided by things in the present."

"How can I tell if this is a real prophecy?"

"Were there things in the dream that you have no way of knowing that you can verify?"

"Maybe. Ron was telling me things I had no way of guessing. Things I can ask him. Where's Ron?"

"In the kitchen, I unbuttoned your shirt to help cool you down and he didn't want to embarrass you."

Kim looked down and sure enough, her shirt was unbuttoned and pulled out of her shorts. Buttoning up her shirt, she called out, "Ron, come in here please?"

Within seconds Ron was in front of her.

"Ron-san, please answer her truthfully."

"OK, sure, what's the sitch?"

"Tell you in a minute," Kim decided to go for broke on all levels, "Are you angry with me?"

"Yes, I am angry that you pushed me aside and didn't go with me. I have meditated on this and the anger is not justified on my part, but nonetheless, I am angry at you."

"Are we friends?"

"I cannot be your friend."

Kim felt like she had been punched in the stomach. "You can't?"

"No."

'OK, let's process that later,' she told herself, then started the real questions, "You don't remember teaching me to cook?"

"Correct."

"Tell me about Gil Moss," she asked.

"Whoa, haven't thought about him in years. He was a fellow camper at Camp Wannaweep. He loved to swim, I thought the water was slimy and disgusting. They gave you tickets for activities, I traded him my swimming and water sports tickets for his arts and crafts tickets. It was a win-win situation for me. Come to think of it, I think he traded all his other activity tickets for swimming tickets."

"Tell me about going to Camp Wannaweep as part of the cheer squad competitions."

"Hmm. I don't remember the squad ever going there."

"So, you don't remember Tara kissing you after you saved us all on that trip?"

Ron concentrated, hard. "No. And that's a memory I would like to have remembered. I really saved everyone?"

"Yes, you really saved us all. Has Yori kissed you?"

Ron paused.

"Has Yori kissed you in front of me?"

"No."

'Okay, that might be a little different from the dream. Just when has Yori kissed him?' she wondered.

"KP? What's all this about?"

"One last question; Have you ever put on a sports bra?"

The two young women watched Ron think for a minute and then blush down to his toes.

"Uh, yeah, apparently I have. And a cheerleader outfit."

"Not a problem, Ron, that memory was from a mission where we swapped bodies for a few days. You dressed up as me, well, you were sort of me. Anyway, we had a cheer meet and you competed as me."

"That does explain why I don't remember looking in a mirror, I didn't want to embarrass you by seeing you naked. Now, care to tell me what is going on?"

"I had a dream, Ron, in that dream your family was moving to Japan. We were at the airport and you told me that you had messed up memories. Those questions were the memories that we talked about in the dream."

"How did the dream end. KP?" Ron demanded.

"Do not answer, Kim-san!" a near-frantic Yori broke in. "Listen to me, both of you, please. Dreams such as these must be handled carefully. Kim-san, have you ever thought of a trip to Japan? I think a trip to the Mountain Meditation Meadow might be in order..."

* * *

STD 2018-

It took a few more minutes to get Kim cooled off and hydrated, Yori claimed that her overheating was a symptom of the kickback from a prophecy dream. By then, it was too late for the extended walk and talk through the park. The three of them headed directly across the park to the Mall to meet Monique for lunch. Kim didn't know whether Yori was walking ahead of them to give them privacy or was 'on point' and expecting trouble.

'No matter,' she thought, 'Lots of fixing to do between me and Ronnie, let's get started...'

She had snagged his hand and since he didn't pull away or seem to object, they were walking side by side and hand in hand. Again, the warmth of his hand soothed her and gave her courage to speak.

"Ronnie, you said that you can't be my friend, can you tell me why?"

There was a pause as Ron took time to formulate an answer. Which was not Ron-like at all.

"KP, I have a lot to process, my mind is racing with ideas bouncing all over the place. The gaps in my memories confuse me. _**You** ,_ confuse me."

"How so, Ron?"

"I believe that the memories I have are accurate, but some are missing some surrounding context."

"Like the sports bra/cheerleader costume?"

"Exactly. I have memories of you pushing me aside to spend time with other boys..."

"Ron, I am..."

"Please KP, let me speak. As I said I am still processing things and speaking uninterrupted will help."

Kim reached down and picked up a fallen twig. Handing to Ron, she said, "Talking twig."

Taking the twig in the hand that Kim wasn't holding, Ron continued speaking without the smile that Kim was hoping her somewhat silly action would have generated;

"I remember you crushing on Josh and I remember pushing you to ask him to go to the dance. I remember you not wanting to go trick or treating with me to go see him play in a garage band or something. I remember you not staying in your room and almost being embarrassed out of existence to go on a date with him. But, I was fine with you and Josh, you were happy and that made me happy. As a true best friend should be."

He stared at the talking twig, collecting his thoughts, and continued;

"With Eric, something in me had changed. You were spending less time with me, again. This time I felt abandoned, kicked to the curb. Maybe I needed help and sympathy with the whole Bueno Nacho thing and my best friend didn't have the time to help."

He saw Kim hold out her hand for the twig, but he pressed on, clutching the little stick tightly.

"I said I was angry about the 'not leaving the prom to help me' sitch. Looking back on it, that is when I began to understand that I didn't want to be your friend, I wanted something different. I have no right to be angry at you for this," Ron pointed to his mask, "not really. I'm a big boy, I knew what I was getting myself into,"

Kim paled a little at that last sentence but Ron didn't notice and he continued, "Wade wanted me to stop and talk to your Dad. I know that he thinks that I'm not good enough for you, but surely, he would have helped on a 'save the world' thing. I got there before Rufus and the Roach Cavalry arrived, but I went ahead anyway instead of waiting for them. After Wade and I found that Drakken was loading software onto the Diablos, we managed to screw up the transmission. If I had run when Wade told me to I would have been safe."

"So," he turned to Kim and looking into those green eyes that he saw in dreams, declared, "My getting hurt is not your fault. My anger at you for staying at the prom instead of coming to help me is real but not justifiable."

Turning back forward, he continued, "Nope, face it KP, the only reason we weren't butt-deep in Diablos the next morning was that I stupidly got caught by Shego and one of the giant cockroaches Rufus brought to help me decided to chew on the transmission power bus. That gave the world enough time for you to arrive and end the threat permanently. I figure that sacrificing my beauteous face to allow Kim Possible to save the world is worth it."

Kim snapped her fingers and imperiously held out her hand for the twig.

Ron handed the stick to her and watched her do this breathing thing she did to focus her mind. He had seen her do it many times before a fight. The question she asked was not the one he was expecting. Or maybe it was the Ur-question, the root question that all others flow from;

"Ron, what do you want to be to me if not my friend?" She held out the stick to him.

He took the stick and paused to give a thoughtful answer because his reflex was to say that he wanted KP to be his girlfriend, but who was he kidding? She could easily find a pretty boy to push him aside for, hell, she would have to look hard for one uglier than him. No, a solitary man was the best. He had not mentioned it, but in the last week, he had been having dreams of him on an anger filled rampage where people died.

His reflection came to a halt when Yori halted and shifted to a subtle defensive stance, scanning the far distance for threats. Looking ahead, he saw Judge Snobblestone and his wife, Eunice in the middle distance. They were on the edge of the Mall parking lot, trying to act casual, but obviously waiting for someone. As he locked eyes with the gray-haired Judge, it was obvious they were waiting for them.

At the same time, both of their Kimmunicators popped out of their pockets, sprouted wheels and zoomed out into traffic where they cut in front of a bus, getting crushed to tiny pieces as they were run over.

Looking at his phone when it vibrated, he saw the text message "Wade: Godspeed". Clicking reply, he saw a message pop up, "Contact not found". A moment later, he felt something snap in the phone and a small wisp of smoke puffed out the USB port.

'Oh, man,' he thought, 'could this day get any better?'

"Good Morning, Mr. Snobblestone, Mrs. Snobblestone," Kim greeted the couple who Team Possible considered not exactly good friends, but definitely really good people. The judge handed her a paper as his wife pulled a scarf over her hair. Ron looked over her shoulder and read the paper. It said,

 **BOLO: Kimberly Ann Possible**

 **16 year** **-year-** **old W/F Red hair 5'4" 110lbs**

 **Wanted for Psych Evaluation.**

 **May be armed.**

 **Consider dangerous even unarmed.**

 **Do not approach alone.**

* * *

STD 2018-

James queued all the pictures of Anne into a software package that was used to extract pictures of far-away galaxies using many, many pictures. Some intern had discovered that the same software could be used to reconstruct a model of a person's body given enough pictures of that person wearing different clothing. Just like it could average out and remove noise from pictures containing the same galaxy and leave an amazingly detailed picture behind, it could effectively remove clothing and create a faithful representation of the body under the clothing. Because of the extra work in rotating sections of a photo, it would take hours to chew through the hundreds of photos that he had taken of Anne over the years.

Because the lab James was working in was a classified lab, it had no phone lines, no cell phone reception. He certainly wasn't supposed have bootlegged a link up to the computer in his office. There was a knock on the door. Calling up screensavers to hide his software, he went to the door and greeted the engineering department secretary, Jaanai Ines. Jaanai handed him a phone message saying, "Dr. Possible, you have an urgent message from your wife. The message read:

 **James,**

 **Come home immediately.**

 **Child Protective Services is here to talk about Jim and Tim.**

 **Anne**

"Dr. Possible, you don't look well, can I drive you home?"

"No, thank you Jaanai, I just need a little more sleep is all. Thank you though."

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

Judge Horace Q. Snobblestone and his wife, Eunice are from Sentinel103 and his "Once Again" series of stories.

 **Authors Note:** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 assisting me with herding stampeding plot bunnies and letting me bounce ideas off of them. The first dream sequence at the start is largely the writing of ST-103, thanks to him for that, although the urge to have Yori come blowing through saying "Hill of greens, hill of greens, yeah, yeah, come on, we've got to go" was almost irresistible, but I was afraid no one would get it. (YouTube "Carrotblanca")


	6. Chapter 6

Ron and Judge Snobblestone were sitting on a bench in the Mall within sight of Club Banana's doors chatting and watching shoppers walk by. Ron had been inside Club Banana just long enough to greet a worried looking Monique who tossed a cape at him and told him to leave while she, Eunice, and two other women he had not met had hustled Yori and Kim into a back room. Normally he would cruise the Internet on his Kimmunicator or play a game, but since their Kimmunicators had destroyed themselves and now his cellphone was totally dead, he was forced to rely on a type of entertainment that was in use at the dawn of civilization. He was forced to swap stories with a 'Village Elder'.

Ron and the Judge spent nearly an hour watching people go by and chatting about strange things that Kim and Ron had gotten into over the years along with some of the stranger things that had shown up in the Judge's court.

Looking at Kim's picture in the **B** e **O** n the **L** ook **O** ut (BOLO) notice, he pointed it out saying, "Man, what is it with KP and portraits? This picture is awful."

"Hard time with school pictures, huh?"

"Yeah, she has a constant battle with the typical stuff; unruly hair, her mom insisting that she wear a sundress her Nana sent her, last year it was turning into a monkey..."

As the Judge watched the teens grow from helpers to heroes, he had made it a point to track their careers. He had quietly quashed several restraining orders people filed. Like the one trying to stop them from parachuting home in the early hours of the morning. He had told those neighbors they needed to show at least a dog barking at them and disturbing the peace, or better yet, some property damage like landing in a flower bed. They couldn't, so that was the end of that. He was sure that turning into a monkey for school picture day wouldn't make the top ten list of strange things that had happened to these kids.

Then Ron turned serious, "Judge, you're kinda sticking your neck out here for us, not that we don't appreciate it."

The Judge just chuckled, "Are you kidding me? Eunice has been dying to do something for you guys for a long time now. She saw the BOLO this morning, called her hairdresser and said she would give Kim a disguise that her own mother couldn't see through. Having Miss Yori to work on was a bonus. Trust me, she and her friends are thrilled to help you guys.

"But won't someone try to claim that you were aiding and abetting or something?

"No son, they won't mess with us. This warrant didn't go through my office, I would have trashed it and kicked the ass of whoever tried to push crap like this. Something stinks here and I won't stand for it. Hell, if push comes to shove, I've always wanted to take Eunice to see cherry blossoms. Been nearly fifty years since I've seen the real thing. You take that partner of yours and get her the hell out of Dodge. Today. Not tomorrow, do it today, son." nodding towards Club Banana, he added, "Here they are. It just seems like forever when women get their hair done and go clothes shopping."

Looking at the doors to Club Banana, Ron saw Monique, Yori, Mrs. Snobblestone and a new girl walk out. She was about KP's height, about her build, but with very pale skin, dark eyes, jet black hair braided into two plaits, one running over each shoulder, a long-sleeved, knee-length black dress with white collar, black stockings, and black ankle boots. She wore very little makeup and a black lace choker with an embroidered white rose. (Think of Wednesday Adams, she's sort of a low-key Goth with respect to her clothes.)

Yori was wearing a strapless dress with alternating white and black ruffles, red high-heeled boots and a big black top hat with a White floral band. She carried a zombie teddy bear and a massive parasol that Ron figured had to be a weapon. Her hair was light purple and done in multiple braids. (web search "One Piece: Ghost Princess Perona") Leading the others, she twirled and then giggling, said, "Ron-san, you look like you have never seen a girl in a dress before."

"It's, uh, not the dress, Yori, it's kinda the whole package." The only experience Ron had with girl's undergarments was that one time with a sports bra and he thought that Yori's dress must have some serious technology given the amount of cleavage the young Ninja was showing.

"My eyes are up here, Stoppable-san." Yori laughed with delight at the reaction of her friend, "It is indeed as you say, the whole package. And this package," she placed one hand under her bosom for emphasis, "is tight in all the wrong places."

Ron dragged his eyes over to the new girl. Was that really Kim? He hoped that the faint dark circles under her midnight eyes were just makeup. Walking up to him, she held out her hand and said, "You must be Ron Stoppable, the Phantom of the Naco. I am Raven Mara, an unremarkable person of unremarkable lineage who tries hard to remember that the proper order of things is pillage, then burn."

Turning to face her so that his new cloak dramatically swished around him, Ron bent over her hand barely grazing it with his lips and replied, "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, Miss Mara. However, I must say that whoever told you that you are unremarkable is a liar and a cad. I don't think you could be unremarkable if your life depended on it... Say, have you ever tried a Naco?"

"Please, call me Raven, kind sir. No, I haven't had the privilege of tasting a Naco. From the name, it sounds truly inspired. Where can we find such a delectable treat?"

"Hello, Horace, Eunice, beautiful day to be at the Mall" a huge voice belonging to an equally huge state trooper was heard as he walked up to the group, followed by two plainclothes officers with badges clipped to their suit jackets.

"Afternoon, John, out protecting and serving or just taking a 10-7 for smoothies?", the Judge greeted the trooper.

"We're checking out Club Banana then a 10-7 for coffees. Kim Possible is supposed to work there. Did you see that they got a BOLO out on Kim Possible? Must be serious if somebody thinks that **she** needs help. Hell, Horace, you remember that flood we had last year? There I was, helping a motorist get airlifted from his swamped car. They no sooner start to pull him up when a damned tree or something hits the car and knocks me into the water. The safety buckle on my harness breaks, I thought I was gonna meet Jesus for sure when this little slip of a girl, maybe 100 pounds soaking wet, plops into the water next to me, fires this grapple contraption and we manage to get to shore where her partner pulls us both out of the water. No, if that girl needs help, I hope that she knows that all she has to do is ask someone like me. If I can't help her myself, I'll find someone who can."

Staring directly at Ron, the officer whose middle name should have been 'The Boulder', added, "And that goes for her partner too."

The huge dark man surveyed the little group, "But here I am rattling on, where are my manners? I'm John Jackson, these two gentlemen here are Bob and Frank, they're reserve officers from some DOD assistance group that were sent out to help us find and assist Miss Possible. If I may be so bold, who are these fine looking young folk that look dressed fit for a cosplay convention?"

Eunice pointed out, "This is Monique, Yori, Raven, and Rob. Yori is from Japan and she is here shopping at Flaming Motif. Yori and Raven are going to the Gojotekicon near Cleveland."

John asked Raven, "So I guessed right. What character are you dressed as, Miss Raven?"

"No character but myself, I always dress like this," she replied.

Ron then watched in awe as Yori became a total blithering airhead preening and telling the officers the details of her 'Ghost Princess Perona' outfit and accessories from the anime **One Piece**. After only two minutes of her excited chattering and giggling, the two reserve officers looked like they were ready to chew off a limb to get away.

Finally, John laughed, "Well, Horace, the bad guys aren't going to bust themselves, so we'd better get back to it. Rob, ladies, you all have a good day now." Looking directly at Raven, he said, "Take care, Miss." He gathered up his two companions and they walked into Club Banana.

The Judge turned to Ron and said, "See Ron, as long as I got people like John around me, I've got nothing to worry about. Well, like they say in the cartoons, time to exit, stage right..."

* * *

STD 2018-

The young Ninja raced up the steps and started to knock, but since she was late for the meeting and she noticed that a camera had monitored her arrival, decided to just walk in. Stepping in the door, she found herself holding two small rockets that she had snatched out of the air by reflex. Looking at the stairs, she saw two wide-eyed boys, about twelve or thirteen perhaps, standing and staring at her.

Giving them a short bow, she said, "My name is Subira Chen, I am supposed to be in a meeting with the parents of Jim and Tim Possible and a Ms. Stickler."

One of the boys pointed to the kitchen. Walking in that direction, she paused to hand the undamaged rockets to the boys.

"How did you know," said one,

"there wasn't an explosive warhead?" finished the other.

"I didn't. But had there been one, the vengeance from my clan would have been swift and terrible," she smiled and walked into the kitchen.

"Ms. Stickler, I am sorry to be late, I was unavoidably delayed by an emergency with another client," the young oriental woman gave a short bow.

The caseworker who looked harried, scowled a little but said politely, "Subira Chen, this is Anne and James Possible. Anne, James, this is Subira Chen, a counselor who was recommended for this case," then turned back to the counselor and explained "We have determined that given the high spirits of both boys and their technical abilities, a foster home is inadvisable. There is an Uncle 'Slim' who could take them in, but I feel strongly that in cases like this where the children are not in danger of abuse by the parents that we should do everything we can to keep the family together. This is a rather unique case as the complaint references a 'danger to themselves and the immediate neighborhood from extreme science'. I propose that we meet in two weeks, discuss your experiences monitoring the twins with James and Anne and see how to proceed."

"I agree. Ms. Stickler, I know that you are behind on meetings today. If you wish to continue on to your next meeting, I am sure that I can finish up here satisfactorily and you will have my preliminary plan on your desk before the close of business tomorrow."

The caseworker looked doubtful, but the woman who was devoted to helping children was behind in her cases and many of those involved children in danger of physical abuse. In her private opinion, this case was a waste of her time and resources. "Very well Miss Chen, I will look at your plan tomorrow. Good day, Mr. Possible, Mrs. Possible," she said gathering up her documents and leaving.

"Perhaps some tea would be appropriate before we get into the details of my monitoring?" Miss Chen said.

"Uh, since the boys will be living at home and Miss Chen will monitor their activities here, I'm sure that whatever you want to try will be fine, right Anne? If you will excuse me, I have a project that I must get back to... See you later, honey, love you." James practically fled the room.

Anne growled a goodbye to her husband then looked at the 'recommended counselor', asking, "Just how old are you?"

"My oriental genetics make me look young, my mother was asked for ID in bars until her late 40s," the dark-haired woman replied, "Shall we have some tea? Would you like to invite Jim and Tim to come down or do you think they would rather listen covertly from their room?"

"Boys! Do your homework!" the mom called out. A faint chorus of "Mom! It's Saturday!", drifted down the stairs.

"Boys!" she repeated and the faint chorus of "OK, Mom," was heard.

Subira pulled out a pocket radio out of her bag and extended its antenna. Setting it down on the table, she smiled and said, "this will prevent young ears from listening to us unless they sneak downstairs." She pulled a pair of dice out of her pocket, squeezed them then tossed them into the living room. "Those will warn us if they come downstairs," smiling, she added, "they will work at least once, I am sure that the brothers of Kim Possible can figure out countermeasures once they know what measures they must counter. I was delayed in getting here, for that I apologize. May I ask why the plan to have the boys stay with the Stoppables was not acceptable?"

"My husband does not like their son Ronald, he believes that he is a bad influence on our daughter Kimmy and having the boys stay with them would cause her to spend more time with him," Anne frowned, "he was vigorously opposed to that idea."

"Speaking of Kim-san, perhaps we should discuss her. I am her counselor and your name is on the form listing people who I can share her information with..."

* * *

STD 2018-

Ron was in overwatch mode as they made their way out of the mall. He figured his job was to carry bags of clothes and walk in the back of their little pack while watching the people around them for threats.

Once they had paused to let people with hand trucks move boxes into a shop. Some guy had walked up to Raven and told her "You'd be prettier if you smiled. Hey, it's not like you're at a funeral." She looked at him and replied in a flat monotone, "The day is still early." The guy retreated, fled was more accurate. It must have been something in her eyes, Ron figured with a smirk. He walked up to her and they walked hand-in-hand through the mall. He told himself that he did that to help make sure that there weren't any unplanned funerals that day, but he finally admitted to himself that it was nice to hold her hand.

Walking out the main doors by the food court, they walked past extra security guards wearing body armor. Raven, and especially Yori, caught the eye of what seemed like every last one of them. To be accurate, their eyes glanced at Raven and jumped to linger on Yori.

Walking out to the parking lot, a white van pulled up and Mr. Stoppable rolled down the window and said, "Get in kids, two hours early for flights to Cleveland!" After hugs and handshakes with the Judge and Mrs. Snobblestone, the Judge told the others, "We'll see that Monique gets home OK. I think that she needs the rest of the day off. After we treat her to a well-deserved lunch."

Monique threw her arms around Raven for a last hug, whispering, "If the Phantom there calls you Kimberly Ann, you call me and I'll come to kick his ass, OK?"

* * *

STD 2018-

"Is Kimmy all right? Do you have her on any medications? Did she tell you what really happened that night?" Anne was nearly frantic. First, from the threat of losing her sons and now there was the chance of finding out information that Jean had suggested the Kim was afraid to tell her because "Mom won't love me anymore."

"Possible-sensei, your daughter loves you very much and I believe that I can act as a mediator to make her feel more comfortable in talking to you."

"She will talk to me more freely if you are present? I don't understand."

"She believes that you won't yell at her in front of a stranger, that is, in front of me. I know that is silly, and she might not admit it, but I believe it to be true. When do you expect her home?"

"I'm not sure, I can call her and check, she is out with Ronald Stoppable. Can you tell me what she is worried about? If I knew ahead of time I would react better."

"I believe that she would be OK with me talking to you first without her." The counselor poured them tea and reaching into a bag, pulled out a box of Pocky, the Japanese chocolate dipped cookie sticks. Picking up a stick, she waited and looked at Anne. The red-haired mom sighed, took a sip of the tea and a nibble on a stick. Getting up, Anne walked to the freezer, pulled out two half pints of ice cream. Opening the containers and sticking a spoon in each, she sat both on the table.

"Dear, you are in America, this is how we handle the tough talk. Pick your poison."

"Thank you very much, Possible-Sensei," Subira said selecting the container marked 'Tin Roof Sundae'.

Waiting until both women had taken a bite, Subira began to explain, "My understanding of the events is that Kim-san left the prom in high spirits. She had shown herself to be the clear alpha of the food chain, as she calls it. Are you familiar with the food chain?"

"Yes," Anne gestured with her spoon before dipping it back into the container, "she had always claimed that it was stupid, but I think the peer pressure to conform must have gotten to her. But she was so happy when I dropped her and Eric off at the prom!"

"Yes, and she said that she had a good time at the prom, except for the talk to Ronald about not going with him to chase down Dr. Drakken. When it came time to leave, she swapped her skirt and heels for jeans and sneakers so Eric could bring her home on his motorcycle."

The mom dug the spoon into the container, "Riding home on Eric's motorcycle was always the plan including changing into jeans and sneakers. She told us that Eric drugged her and when she woke up, she was partially undressed and Rufus and some others had destroyed Eric. That was when she discovered what Eric really was."

"Did she tell you who the 'others' were?" the counselor was managing to hold her own in ice cream consumption.

Anne visibly shuddered, "Yes, in fact, when Ron was still in the hospital I went down with Tara and Rufus so they could introduce me to Roachie and Lenard so I could personally thank them."

"Did she mention that Eric had called your husband and James told him that she didn't need to be home until eleven-thirty?"

"No, she didn't. I think that he did, I remember James telling me that they wouldn't be home until later than planned."

"Kim agreed to go to the lake, she was looking forward to a make-out session under the rising moon."

"She was a young woman who was falling in love, we had 'the talk' long ago."

"She was planning on going all the way if the opportunity presented itself."

"Oh, my baby..."

"How do you feel about that? That is one of her worries."

"Well, I can wish that she had picked another person, time and place, but I can't claim to be truly upset with her. Actually, I had expected that her first time would be with Ronald, probably after a mission with a close call. She must be heartbroken to find out that the person she had given her heart to was a robot created by an enemy to distract her and then humiliate her. And then to plan on offering herself to it..."

"She is greatly troubled by it. She may have trust issues in the future. How closely do you follow their 'missions'?"

"I read the reports and Wade gives me full access to logs and Kimmunicator transcripts."

"What about the last mission?"

"No reports have been written. Wade says he is waiting for GJ to finish their analysis before I can see them," looking down at her half-eaten ice cream container, she finally looked up, her blue eyes bleak with dread, "That's a lie, isn't it? Can you tell me what happened?"

"As soon as Kim-san dropped Ronald off at the emergency room, she took off after Drakken and Shego. She believed that time was critical. This time in her mission pack, there was a Walter PPK with special ammunition that she had asked for and that Wade had ready."

A bitter laugh, "Should have guessed that Wade would be a James Bond fan. He really is their **'** **Q** **'**." Realization then dawned in her blue eyes, "Shego! Shego must have the same ability to speed up her healing as Hego and her other brothers. Normal bullets would slow her, but not stop her for long. What were they?"

"Possible-Sensei, you must remember that the plot that Ronald, Wade, your sons and husband analyzed was a true take over the world threat, a threat of tens of thousands of giant robots attacking countries all over the world. The death toll would have been incredible. She had just dropped her best friend at the hospital, she could see his brain exposed under the transparent shell of hardened bug saliva. Their failed attempt at raping her was also in her mind but was the least of the motivations driving her, I truly believe that."

"What were the bullets?" Anne quietly repeated.

"She carried two bullets made of a highly frangible alloy of Polonium-210. She fired both bullets into Shego."

"My God," Anne paled, "Shego's increased metabolism would have spread the poison through her system and accelerated the poison's effect on her organs. That was what killed her?"

'Please forgive me,' Subira thought to herself, not knowing who to ask for forgiveness for what she was about to say, "the GJ coroner reported that Shego had several nearly healed gunshot wounds, he was unsure whether the cause of death was the Polonium poisoning or decapitation."

"Dr. Drakken?" Anne looked numb.

"Shot nine times."

The redhead put her head on her arms on the table.

"How old are you again? My baby is hurting and they gave her a child to help her!?"

"Possible-Sensei, my passport claims I am twenty-four, my birth certificate says I am eighteen. Please! Listen!" Subira cut off the anguished mother who had picked her head up off the table, tears in her eyes and looked about to tear into the young counselor. Pressing on, she continued,

"I am young, but I am not alone! When I was counseling your daughter, the audio in the room was fed in real time to three of our finest counselors and senior physicians, all experienced in helping young people handle this kind of trauma. They provided guidance to me in real time on what to say, what to do. My organization wanted to get your daughter help as fast as humanly possible and this is the best we could provide in short notice. About halfway through the first session, she realized that I was listening to hidden advisers and we turned the session into a group session with her talking to all of us."

The doorbell rang and there was the thunder of feet down the stairs as Jim and Tim raced to answer it, the little cubes in the living room cheeped three times and were silent in response to the boys' presence. Neither woman seemed to notice.

"I want to talk to them, can you set it up?" demanded Anne.

The young counselor opened her bag, pulled out what appeared to be ordinary Bluetooth earbuds, pressed a button on them and once a little blue light came on she handed them over.

"Mrs. Doctor Possible-Sensei?" a slightly accented older male voice spoke, "Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can hear you fine, who is this?

"I am the Master Sensei of the Yamanouchi Ninja School."

"Isn't that the high school that Ronald did an exchange at for a couple of weeks?"

"Mom!" the twins called from the door, "Tara and Jessica are here and they say that they need to talk to you now! They've got Bonnie with them!" The way they said 'Bonnie' made it clear that they did not care for the young woman... at all.

"It sounds like you have something that requires your immediate attention," the male voice continued, "I will wait patiently on the line until you can take care of it and then we can talk..."

* * *

STD 2018-

"Hello, Mr. Lederberg, this is Dr. Director. Would you care to tell me the meaning of this Memorandum of Understanding is about?" the one-eyed Global Justice Director was reading a file on her screen while she talked on the phone.

"Well, Ma'am, I think it is pretty self-explanatory. My office is notifying you of our attention of recruiting and then supplying Kim Possible with counseling and training. Both Army training and a scholarship to whatever United States University she wishes."

"After her last mission, we are unsure that she would be suitable for any position that would require her to use force in the execution of expected law enforcement duties, particularly in the realm of combating supervillains.

"I have seen Agent Du's report. We at the U.S Army Intelligence Support Activity Recruitment section think that you are too quick to discard an amazing young woman."

Dr. Director leaned back in her chair. Mr. Lederberg was their liaison with the USAISA who had a small staff to help coordinate issues and missions between them and Global Justice.

"We feel that her killing Dr. Drakken and Shego has affected her sense of self-worth and not in a good way."

"With all due respect Dr. Director, you should be offering her counseling and help, not just letting her wander off to lick her wounds. I have heard rumors that the **Commandos Marine** is considering offering both members of Team Possible a full six-year scholarship to any university in France in exchange for one year of training with them and should she pass their training, service with them for one year. Their offer would also include counseling and additional training during her senior year of high school."

"But I can't imagine that under any circumstances Miss Possible could run with the very big dogs of special forces operatives. Maybe Mr. Stoppable might be closer, but he is never going to be as big and tough as your people are."

"True, but our trainers believe that it is Mr. Stoppable that provides his teammate with survivability. We would use their talents of infiltration and stealth. If we could get both of them and Rufus, we wouldn't have to kick open doors, we'd run into action with the doors unlocked, alarms turned off, and automatic defenses disabled. Sometimes, we Army types do use our heads for more than hitting things with. We are asking for a chance to present them with our offer."

"Why are you asking GJ?"

"There is a warrant out to pick Miss Possible up for a psych eval. We believe that wherever Miss Possible goes, Mr. Stoppable follows. Since very few organizations know what happened on Team Possible's last mission, we assumed that it was you."

The Director swore a curse under her breath. "It was not us, I am going to see if I can track down who did it, perhaps you should do the same..."

* * *

STD 2018-

Tara and Jessica stood behind Bonnie who looked like she would have fled in a panic had they not been there.

"Tell her!" prompted Jessica.

"Tell me what, dear," Anne looked at the brunette on the cheer squad, the source of a lot of conflict and angst in her daughter's life. The surgeon made it a personal goal not to hate anyone, but there were people that she certainly didn't love...

"I, uh... I didn't mean to get Kim in trouble!" the anxious girl blurted out.

"Take a breath and start from the beginning, dear."

"I uh, saw Kim drop one of those little metal boxes that holds bullets for a gun, you know, the kind that fits into the gun handle?"

Anne nodded at the girl to continue.

"Well, I might have mentioned it to someone on the phone and mom overheard me. She sort of flipped out and made some phone calls. She found out that Kim has a concealed carry permit that even lets her carry in school."

"OK, I know she has that permit, but I didn't think she carried a gun anywhere, certainly not at school," Anne said.

"She's carried a pistol ever since Ron was hurt, even at school," claimed Tara, "but that's not the problem," she poked the brunette to continue.

"Mom talked to someone and they have a warrant out for the police to pick up Kim and have her committed to some psycho ward for evaluation. I'm sorry, I wouldn't have said anything if I had known, now she is going to kill me, for real this time!"

"Kim has killed you 'not for real' in the past? Has she ever struck you? Taken a swing at you?" said the Mom.

"Well, no, I mean we argue and stuff, but only words until now!"

Anne Possible, lover of James, mother of three (sometimes four), and physician and teacher to many closed her eyes and recited the **Oath of Maimonides** :

"The eternal providence has appointed me to watch over the life and health of Thy creatures. May the love for my art actuate me at all times; may neither avarice nor miserliness, nor thirst for glory or for a great reputation engage my mind; for the enemies of truth and philanthropy could easily deceive me and make me forgetful of my lofty aim of doing good to Thy children."

"May I never see in the patient anything but a fellow creature in pain."

"Grant me the strength, time and opportunity always to correct what I have acquired, always to extend its domain; for knowledge is immense and the spirit of man can extend indefinitely to enrich itself daily with new requirements. Today he can discover his errors of yesterday and tomorrow he can obtain a new light on what he thinks himself sure of today."

"Oh, God, Thou has appointed me to watch over the life and death of Thy creatures; here am I ready for my vocation and now I turn unto my calling."

When she opened her eyes, the anger, fear, and frustration that Bonnie had seen a few seconds ago were gone, replaced with a cool calmness that she found far more terrifying. This wasn't a mom who might scream, yell, and maybe hit; this was the surgeon who used a scalpel to remove tumors and disease. A physician who fought death on a regular basis.

"Who did your mom talk to?" the surgeon asked coolly and calmly.

"My uncle Derrick." The terrified brunette tried to convince herself that she was one of 'Thy creatures' mentioned in the old-time prayer she had just heard.

"What does he do?"

"I don't know, some government job thing, he's always joking around that if he told us, he'd have to kill us..."

"Thank you for telling me this. Girls, can you make sure that Bonnie gets home safely, please?"

"Yes, Ma'am. Is there anything that Tara or I can do to help?" asked Jessica.

"No, but thank you for offering, dear. I think that it might be best for you to stay away until you hear from us that it is safe."

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

Judge Horace Q. Snobblestone and his wife, Eunice along with Suzie Chin are from Sentinel103 and his once again stories.

Note that the name on Suzie's United States of America passport is Subira Chen. This name was first used in my story Graduation in Early MAYhem when she, Wanda Wang, and Mr. Bates were hunting Fukushima in London. Their American Passports show their ages as old enough to purchase alcohol, rent cars, etc.

From that story:

"Subira... That's a Swahili name that means 'patience is rewarded'. Were your parents explorers or diplomats?" Lord Walls asked.

"No, Lord Walls, my parents were great readers of adventure books and just liked the name. Something to do with how I came along later in life for them I am told."

 **Authors Note:** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and sanity checkers. Believe me, I need a lot of sanity checks.


	7. Chapter 7

**(Time: Saturday Afternoon, Prom + 15)**

(From the last Chapter)

"Thank you for telling me this. Girls, can you make sure that Bonnie gets home safely, please?"

"Yes, Ma'am. Is there anything that Tara or I can do to help?" asked Jessica.

"No, but thank you for offering, dear. I think that it might be best for you to stay away until you hear from us that it is safe."

* * *

STD 2018-

Anne Possible walked back into the kitchen and sat down across from the young counselor who had remained patiently waiting. And undoubtedly listening. A quick check of their ice cream containers showed them to have about a quarter remaining.

"Hello? Sir, are you there? How should I address you? I don't wish to be impolite."

"Master Sensei is what most students and the staff call me. My title is Toshimiru Kaemon. Toshimiru was the name of the founder of this academy over 700 years ago. The Headmasters have all taken his name as their family name as a reminder of someone that we strive to emulate and honor. Should we become friends, perhaps Kaemon-san would be appropriate."

"Very well, might I suggest that you use Anne-Sensei to address me. Mrs. Doctor Possible-Sensei seems too unwieldy. I assume that you heard all the conversation with Bonnie?"

"Yes, I did. Had I been a touch more honorable, I would have pointed out that for privacy, you should have turned off the headset. But I did hear, and I have one of my best researchers chasing down 'Derrick' to see who he might work for."

In Japan, a young woman named Katsumi blushed furiously at her Sensei's praise as she rapidly typed search terms into a U.S. Government census database and started a query cross-correlating names of the Middleton Rockwaller clan against a hacked Soviet database containing names of United States 'Black Ops' personnel that were stolen from an Israeli database of known worldwide covert black operatives. She was starting to start the next query against published lists of military intelligence and law enforcement personnel, when;

"Yatta!" she shouted, before remembering the decorum expected of students in their Master Sensei's presence. Grabbing a printout off the printer, she handed it to him, kneeling and bowing as if a Vassal delivering a sword to a Feudal Lord while mumbling an apology for her impertinence.

Looking at the paper, the old headmaster intoned solemnly, "Yatta, indeed, Katsumi-san."

Hearing her Sensei use the honorific 'san' while on the phone to the legendary brain surgeon and mother of the hero Kim Possible, Katsumi turned away, eyes brimming with tears of happiness. She knew that the next time he addressed her it would be with the more appropriate 'Katsumi-kun', but at that moment the young Ninja swore that she would never fail him.

Anne heard the exuberant cry of 'Yatta!' and it caused her to smile a little even though she was worried about, well, a lot of things.

"Did I hear that your researcher found something?"

"Indeed, she did. Her youthful exuberance was due to finding the information, the information she found is troubling." Anne and the counselor, who, of course, was listening, heard the headmaster make a request in Japanese to someone in the room. Anne looked at the face of the young woman across from her, but her face was calm with a trace of approval.

"We have found that Mrs. Rockwaller has a brother named Derrick Duhei who is suspected of being a recruiter working for a covert American Government Black Ops group. A group that deals with the deadliest of America's enemies usually by quiet assassination. I assume that you would rather not have your Kimberly end up in a psychiatric facility under their sponsorship?"

"No! Absolutely not! Surely these people can't just grab people off the street!"

"Apparently they think they can. In this case, I fear that grabbing your daughter would result in a bloodbath when Ronald visits them to retrieve his friend."

"Kimmy is afraid that Ronald doesn't see her as a friend anymore because she feels that she betrayed him at the prom. He's even told her that he can't be her friend."

"I would wager that friend or not, he would still be her Avenging Angel... How much brain damage did Ronald suffer? No, wait, this part of our conversation should wait until you get here."

"What? I'm not coming to Japan! I mean the Stoppable family is moving there in a month or so, but..."

"Anne-Sensei, your Kimberly and Ronald will be on a flight to Japan by breakfast time tomorrow morning. I would like you to come to attend her counseling sessions and to help monitor Ronald's recovery. In addition, there is the admittedly very small chance that Derrick might try to use your two sons as leverage to get Kim. Again, they would not, in the end, be successful. But it would be a very bloody lesson. In the greater scheme of things, it might even be a lesson they need to learn, but I fear that Kimberly and Ronald should not be the ones teaching it."

There was a pause as a young woman's voice spoke to the headmaster in Japanese.

"I have been told that your schedule could be cleared to allow you to come to Japan for two weeks, starting in two days."

"Your people seem to know more about me and mine than I feel comfortable with you knowing."

"We are Ninja, that is a large part of our job. I formally invite you and your sons to come and visit us. I understand that your husband is tied up in a time-critical project and will not be able to accompany you. We will handle all the travel details. Plus," the headmaster laughed, "the ah, shall we say, the technical exuberance of your sons will be an example to inspire a class of Ninja students."

'Lord help us all,' Anne thought to herself but said, 'I need to talk to my husband and check my schedule, but I provisionally accept. I trust that Subira will be our contact with you?"

"Yes, she can answer any questions that you have and will make any necessary arrangements from your end."

* * *

STD 2018-

Wade was in an extremely rare state, he was stumped at how to contact Kim and Ron. His fear, unproven at the moment but real enough for him to take action, was that some group with highly technical resources was trying to snatch Kim and maybe Ron. He knew that GJ used the tracking chips in their Kimmunicators to at least tell when the pair was near a transport tube. And of course, using a cellphone to find someone was trivial for people like them.

He had cut off his own cellphone so that if they called, the call couldn't be back traced to find them. Nobody answered the landline phone at the Stoppable house, and Ron's parents didn't carry those 'new-fangled' cellphones. Conversely, the Possible house didn't have a landline phone as they all carried cellphones. None of the Possible cellphones were currently connected to the network, which could be a coincidence, but he didn't think so.

Finally, he left a text message for Anne's phone when it reconnected to the network, asking her to call him. Not having a better idea, he started automated searches running on security cameras looking for a redhead traveling with a blond with a white half-mask...

* * *

STD 2018-

Kim put aside her desire to get Ron to finish answering her 'what do you want to be to me?' question for the time being. Loading into the van took a long couple of minutes; Hana was in a child seat on the middle bench in the van and insisted that she sit next to her and Rufus. Hana was either calling her 'dark sis' or 'darkness', either one fit her 'Raven Mara' persona just fine. Ron helped Yori into the back, layers of ruffles and all, and then climbed into the back to join her.

Actually, Ron joined 'them'. Another Japanese girl was already in the back, a taller beauty who introduced herself as Wanda Wang. Hana presented her new 'darkness' with a black and white stuffed animal; it was Kim's Pandaroo. Which was their way of telling her that Wanda and Hana had packed a few things for her and she was now on her way to Japan?

The pretty, former redhead, thought to herself, ' _Japan. That has possibilities._ I've heard that many people are able to 'reinvent' themselves when they _leave_ their old high school environs and friends to go to college. Ahhhh, new places, new people, an almost blank slate to start over. Except for Ron and helping people, there _is_ little of my old Kim Possible life experience that I really want to hang on to. Or am I just fixated on reclaiming **_my_** Ron because I practically threw him away? I wonder how this is gonna play out?'

"Dark dance!" Hana chanted, pulling her back into the here and now, "Happy dance!" The little girl turned in her seat to look behind her, "Bear dance too!"

Yori's cosplay zombie teddy bear was handed over the seat back and soon Hana and her 'dark sis' were playing dance party with the two plush toys. Even Rufus danced a little to the delight of the little girl. After the impromptu dancing of Rufus and the plush toys, Hana started a tea party with Kim, Rufus, and the two tired and thirsty plush dancers. To some extent, a little girl tea party was mostly the same in America as Japan and Kim decided that interacting with small children would definitely be something to carry forward into her new Raven persona.

* * *

STD 2018-

"Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. We're so glad..." Wade cut off the ringtone by hitting the answer button on his headset. **[Bonus Old Guy points if you know why that is Mrs. Dr. P's ringtone on Wade's phone.]**

"Mrs. Dr. Possible, I think Ron and Kim are in trouble! I panicked and cut off their comms thinking that would help them avoid capture, and now I can't reach them! I'm not seeing them on cameras or anything! It's been hours!"

"Wade, dear, slow down and take a breath. Tell me what you know and I'll tell you what I know, OK?"

"I saw that there was a Be On the Look Out warrant issued for Kim around noon. It looked like some kind of secret agency was involved, so I destroyed their Kimmunicators and sent the 'go to cover' message on their cellphones, then destroyed those. I was afraid that the bad guys would find them using their comms. I figured that I would intercept them sooner or later on security cameras and could get new comms to them somehow."

"You left them without comms and without backup?" Wade cringed from the disapproval in her voice.

"I panicked! I'm sorry! But I think that Yori is with them, so they should have some support from, uh, the, uh, people that Yori works with."

"Would that be the Yamanouchi Ninja School? I was just talking to their Master Sensei and he claims that they will be on a plane to Japan by breakfast time tomorrow."

The relief in their young tech support's voice was a real, living thing.

"That's, that's good. I was afraid that my screwup had gotten them into danger." There was a trace of tears in the young man's voice.

"Listen to me. There is entirely too much failure going on around here. And it is not just you. But all that stops right now, do you hear me?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"I want you to put 24/7 tracking on my sons, James, the Possibles and if you see anybody that you can identify as part of this Yamanouchi place, I want them protected also. Get on the networks, the public networks please, I don't want your mom to be bailing you out of jail. Get on the networks and try to find threats before they hit us, Bonnie Rockwaller said that she thinks her uncle Derrick Duhei might have something to do with that warrant out on Kim. Master Sensei thought that he works for a really bad bunch, so be careful and don't mess with them directly. The boys and I are probably going to Japan in a couple of days. That's pretty much all I know."

* * *

STD 2018-

 **(Time: Saturday night, Prom + 15)**

The injured side of Ron's face ached. In all the hustle today, he had forgotten his pain medications, strong ibuprofen really, and he was 'chasing the pain' instead of being ahead of it. The pills he had taken should start to work in about 30 minutes, at least enough to go to sleep. The standard sleepwear for tonight was declared to be gym shorts and tee-shirts, his parents had checked them into a large suite at the airport hotel.

The plan was that they would put Kim and Ron on the plane in the morning and the rest would drive back to Middleton. His parents still had to supervise movers putting things into storage before they could join them in Japan.

After a quiet dinner in the hotel's restaurant, the teens were taking turns showering and getting ready for bed. His parents claimed the bedroom in the suite and the rest of them had the living room with its king bed and a foldout sofa, "You kids figure it out," was the guidance from his parents as they left for a walk with Hana before bed.

Yori had been first out of the shower, barefoot and wearing only a long tee shirt, she dramatically flopped backward onto the king bed declaring, "Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty, we are free at last," while massaging her abused bosom.

Wanda said, in Japanese, " _I see that you chose to end your shower with very cold water, did you wish for your friend to admire that freedom?_ "

Yori promptly rolled over, displaying an athletic, curved posterior, as she grabbed a pillow to hurl at her teammate's head causing the taller Ninja to snort in laughter (and still in Japanese), " _You seem to be displaying many of your charms tonight, little sister_."

Ron thought that he almost understood her Japanese, the meaning of her words barely eluding him. He could practically visualize the words swirling around him, taunting him at the edge of his consciousness.

He became aware of Kim glaring at him,

"What!?" he asked her, looking at Rufus for confirmation. The little mole rat shrugged its shoulders, looking just as puzzled as he felt.

"It's not polite to stare, perhaps _**they**_ can explain it to you," She stormed into the bathroom for her shower.

Wanda walked over, putting one hand on the undamaged side of his face to turn it so she could see his eyes, "You _**were**_ staring Ronnie-chan, not that you could help but look at such a shameless exhibition of Yori-chan's many charms." Blocking a second thrown pillow with her other hand, she continued, "But it appeared that your eyes were unseeing. What happened?"

"It was like I could almost understand what you were saying to Yori, the Japanese words seemed to dance around in my head and taunt me with their meaning. Probably just need the painkillers to kick in."

"Maybe so. I will use the other bathroom for my shower, I will leave you so you may stare at Yori's salacious displays undisturbed." Gathering up her shower things, she left the bedroom. Yori bounced one last pillow off the door as Wanda closed it behind her.

Alone with the blond, she said, "My apologies, Ron-san, I truly did not intend to tease you." 'That's not a total lie,' she told herself.

"That's a pity, your charms are a wonder to behold... I'm going to fill up the ice bucket, be back in a minute."

* * *

STD 2018-

Wade walked into his computer area in the basement. He was stunned to find a young woman sitting in his guest computer chair watching him. All the manuals and printouts that had been in that chair were neatly stacked on the floor out of the way.

"Hello Wade, I am Suzie Chen. I represent Master Sensei and wish to make you an offer."

"What kind of offer?"

"Mrs. Dr. Possible said that you often work alone. Since Ron and Kim are on their way to Japan, she was concerned that you wouldn't have any help or backup in case you needed it."

"I haven't needed any help so far!"

"Yes, but in a pinch, Ron and Kim would be here to rescue you should you need that. Or just be available in case you only need someone to talk to. But now they are in Japan. A Ninja of Yamanouchi may be in dire straits with alligators biting on his butt, but do you know what he is not?"

"Uh, no?"

"A Ninja is never alone Wade. Mrs. Dr. Possible suggested that we talk to you."

"You want me to be a Ninja?" the young man laughed and dropped into his computer chair.

"I think the American expression is 'Come to the dark side. We have cookies.'"

"I don't think Mom would let me go to Japan. And Ron told me about the morning runs..."

"Not all Ninjas are physical athletes. Let me put you in contact with a potential teammate and you can discuss it with her. Just talk, for now, no commitment yet."

"Yet?"

"Part of your team may need to move here so they can work at your side. That can be decided later. Are you willing to talk to them?"

"Sure, how do I contact them?"

"Call this number on the Viper app. I will use my cellphone to authenticate your computer."

Wade started up the app, dialed the number and a barcode appeared on the screen. Suzie held up her cellphone so the camera could 'see' the barcode and a young woman appeared on the screen,

"Hai, this is Katsumi, how may I help you?"

Suzie scooted over so the camera would pick her up,

"Ohayou, this is Mr. Wade Load, tech master of Team Possible, Wade, this is Miss Katsumi Cullen of our research section. She will provide you with the airline flights that Ron and Kim will be taking tomorrow. She can also assist you in getting new comms gear to them assuming you have them ready."

"They're ready now and packaged up, Katsumi, where are they taking off from tomorrow?"

"San Diego, Wade-sama, their flight information is..." she paused to type a query into her computer.

"It's just Wade, Katsumi-san" Wade added the '-san' at the prompting of his guest.

Seeing the two were busy coordinating details, Suzi laughed to herself, 'My work here is done,' slipping off to say goodbye to Wade's mother and then to the Possible house for a late dinner.

* * *

STD 2018-

The bathroom opened and Raven/Kim walked out. "OK, it's all yours. A shower goes pretty fast when you can't get your hair wet for three days."

"KP, I didn't mean to stare, I..."

"That's OK, I overreacted. It's not like your tongue was hanging out. Do you need any help with your wound? I can help you if you'd like."

"Nah, thanks, but it's still pretty gross."

"Hey, I changed Jamie's diaper that time he was sick and pooping in Technicolor."

"Yeah, don't remind me. How about let's not ruin the mystery about the man behind the mask?"

The two young women watched the blond grab some clothes out of his bag and duck into the bathroom.

"Could I ask a favor?"

"Certainly Kim-san."

"They used this to lighten my skin tone," stripping off her tee-shirt, "and they didn't do all my body. Can you help me get rid of this negative-suntan look?" She held out a jar of some kind of ointment. Rolling her eyes and also holding out a pair of latex gloves, she added, "It's supposed to be non-toxic and hypoallergenic..."

"Certainly, lay on this towel." Starting to even out the goth girl's skin color by rubbing the substance into darker areas, she continued, "Do you really think this is necessary for your disguise? It seems a little extreme to me. Particularly as your natural color will return in a week or two."

"It's a mental thing. If I really want to leave Kim behind and become Raven, I need to look in the mirror and see Raven. At least for a few days."

"Why do you want to leave Kim behind? Kim Possible is a good person. Is it for your safety? I believe that no one will be able to take you away once you get to Yamanouchi."

"Kim abandoned a friend and then had to kill two people to make up for not being where the world needed her to be."

"Roll over please so I can do your backside, your front looks pretty even now. But Ron-san does not blame you and you did what you had to do to save thousands of lives. If not from death itself, you saved them from losing their homes, their livelihoods. Conquering the world is never as clean as the movies and supervillains imagine it will be."

"No, it's not, but Kim has this mentality that if she doesn't save the world, then nobody will save it. In the long run, the world is doomed and she'll run herself ragged for nothing.

"Forgot my antibiotic..." a towel wrapped blond dashed from the bathroom to his bags, "Not looking! Not looking!"

"Oh, so Yori's boobs and butt are fascinating, but mine offend you?!"

He pulled a bottle out of a bag and walked closer to the bed, "No! You have a great butt! And I can't see your boobs, but I know they have to be great too. Oh! Water's running, got to go..." The naked girl felt a light slap on her butt just before he quickly retreated back into the bathroom.

"Did he just smack my butt!" the outrage was ruined by laughter.

"It was not I, Kim-san."

Wanda walked in to find the two girls, one naked and stretched out on a towel, laughing.

"What did I miss?"

* * *

STD 2018-

Figuring that he needed to lay low for a bit, he took his time after his shower caring for the still healing areas covered by his ceramic mask.

Walking into the bedroom he found Yori and Wanda had taken the foldout couch because while he was in the shower, his parents had returned from their walk with a tired and very bossy Hana who decided that she was going to sleep 'with the big kids' and specifically that meant between her new brother and her new 'dark sis'.

Sliding into the bed, he found Hana and Rufus sound asleep in the middle and Kim was on her side facing the wall. He hoped that she wasn't still angry at him, why the heck had he done that? For now, his painkillers had caught up, he was tired and ready to sleep. Curling up on his side, he placed his hand on Hana, comforted by the steady rise and fall of her body as his new little sister breathed.

"'Night, little Sweetie, he whispered to his little sister.

"Ii yume yoku mite ne, _**Ronnie-chan**_ ," Yori said softly.

"Yoku nemure, **_Ronnie-chan_ , **" Wanda whispered.

"Sweet dreams, _**Ronnie-chan**_ ," Kim snickered.

* * *

STD 2018-

 **(Time: Sunday morning, Prom + 16)**

Rufus raced down the deserted, narrow, hot, dark tunnels. Stopping to sniff, he didn't smell his brothers and sisters, but the foul, acrid scent of danger. A danger with scales and fangs was approaching the blue glow that marked the location of his two-legged brother. He gathered himself to fling his body into battle with one of his most deadly natural enemies. A seemingly familiar darkness flowed up behind him, passing him on its way to intercept the danger. A glowing blue insect walked along the ceiling above him, "Let the darkness handle this danger, you must remain and guard your two-legged brother's queens and his new sister. Trust it with your two-legged brother, it will not fail him again." Rufus reached up and grabbed the insect, popping it into his mouth. As he chewed the crunchy prophetic treat, he considered its words.

"Rufus? Rufus sweetie, time to get up," Mrs. Stoppable gave the little guy a gentle shake. She had seen him twitching in his sleep, 'I guess mole rats dream,' she thought.

Rufus stretched and looked around. Wanda had dressed in Kim's black dress from yesterday, Kim had put on black jeans, black sneakers, and a shirt with a graphic of a grinning feline sitting on a gravestone with the caption, 'Don't trust the cat'. Both were helping stuff Yori back into her dress with the black and white ruffles.

"Where Ron, 'Ana?" he squeaked.

"They're in the bedroom watching 'Morning Dance with the Flippies'. Why don't you tell them that the girls are nearly ready for breakfast"

"Kay!" the little naked mole rat hopped out of her hands, on to the bed, then down to the floor and ran into the next room. He was going to have to tell Ron that he was staying here with Hana. He hoped that Ron wouldn't be too hurt by that decision.

* * *

STD 2018-

 **(Time: Sunday Noon, Prom + 16)**

'Raven' was waiting for the wide-body airliner to take off on its way to Japan. Part of her desire to reinvent herself was to help her focus on important things. Right now, her main goal was to talk to Ron about the two of them without interruption. Just to talk. How hard could that be?

Wanda had offered to help get her past airport security with her gun, but she had declined the offer. That was fortunate because as the forces of darkness were her witness, she just might shoot the next person that interrupted them if she had her gun. First, Ron was interrupted when the Judge found them and told them about the "Be On the Look Out" thing. Then there was the whole sneak out of town in disguise thing with the ride to the hotel in the Stoppable's van with Hana insisting that 'dark sister' ride with her. No time at dinner and even sleeping in the same bed didn't provide privacy because Hana was sleeping between them and two Ninjas with preternatural hearing were only a few feet away.

They were all surprised that Rufus wouldn't come with them but insisted on staying with Ron's mom and Hana. She swore that she caught the little guy staring at her several times that morning at breakfast. Still, the lack of Rufus had to make getting Ron alone to talk easier, right?

The first leg of their flight, a short hop to San Diego, consisted of an hour with a baby in front of them throwing its bottle and/or pacifier over the seat at them.

The second leg from San Diego nonstop to Japan looked promising, they miraculously didn't have anyone near them with a baby or even a child and all their neighbors looked happy to sit with headphones on and watch the in-flight movie.

After takeoff, she settled back and was checking the music that Wade had loaded onto her new Kimmunicator. They had both found a small package with 'Ron and Raven' scrawled on it tucked into the pocket of the seat backs in front of them. Wade's reputation with the pair grew stronger than ever when they opened the packages and found new Kimmunicators keyed to their fingerprints.

The plane was bustling with activity, snacks and beverages were being served and their neighbors all looked too alert for them to have the quiet discussion she wanted.

* * *

STD 2018-

Several hours into the flight, the snacks and beverages had been served and cleaned up and the cabin lights were dimmed to encourage people to nap.

Kim checked her surroundings. They were in a wide-body jet and their seats were the two seats between the side of the plane and the aisle between their two seats and the set of five seats together in the center section. The people in front, behind, and across the aisle from them were watching movies or trying to sleep. More importantly, they all had headphones on, so as long as they spoke quietly, they had privacy.

"Ronnie, you awake?" Kim folded up the armrest and scooted over next to the blond.

"Sure, uh... Am I still supposed to call you KP?"

"It wouldn't be good for my cover," she thought for a moment. "How about you use 'Raven' for now, OK?"

"OK, let's see... RM doesn't roll off the tongue like KP, how about I call you Rave?"

"That's fine, now..."

"Maybe Ravie-baby or..."

"Don't push it!"

"OK, Raven," in the dim light, she saw a touch of his goofy grin. Between that and the little swat on the butt last night, she was sure that she could fix this. That she could get him as 'more than a friend'. All that was left to it was to do it. Of course, she had to find out his reasons why it wouldn't work.

"Can we finish the conversation we started before we ran into the Judge?"

"You mean the one where I was explaining what I want to be to you if not your friend?"

"Yup, that's the one. You up to it?"

"I think so. Well, realistically, I..."

"Stop right there. Don't worry about realism just yet, tell me what you want and then we can discuss how reality messes with it."

"OK, give me a sec..." He thought for an uncomfortably long minute before continuing, "I guess it is accurate to say that I'd like to grow into being your boyfriend, but realistically..." pale fingers clamped his lips shut.

"Never mind reality just yet, what does being my boyfriend mean to you? What would you expect?"

Closing his eyes to visualize, "Well, lots of time like this, you snuggled up to me, talking and maybe... you know, growing into other stuff. Knowing that you'd always be there for me. Knowing that I'd have a permanent place in your heart."

"And that evil reality whispers in your ear and it says?"

"That you'd find someone better, That I'd walk in one day and discover you in the arms of some guy better than me."

"You think I'd cheat on you?"

"It wouldn't be so much cheating..." he murmured, thinking about his words. "But it wouldn't be hard for you to find someone more attractive than me on many levels. If that were to happen, it would be over, wouldn't it?"

Barely able to keep her voice down, she hissed, "I can't believe that you think I'd toss you aside for a pretty face! Did I ever even flirt with anyone else when I was dating Josh? Or Eric? And what about you? I saw you checking out little Miss Ninja showing off her boobs and..." Her increasing level of outrage was quenched by the soft, cool touch of smooth leather running along the arm she had draped over Ron's shoulder. Looking up, she found herself looking into the face of a snake with an almost iridescent purple body shining in the dim light with a copper-colored chin and lower face.

* * *

STD 2018-

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

Judge Horace Q. Snobblestone and his wife, Eunice along with Suzie Chin(Subira Chen) and her partner in Ninja-hood Wanda Wang are all from Sentinel103 and his **Once Again** stories.

 **Authors Note** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and sanity checkers. Believe me, I need a lot of sanity checks. This chapter was a blast to work on because of the input and edits I got from all three of these authors. Thanks!

I prefer to answer comments directly instead of in the story itself, however,

I will admit that Uberscribbler's comment on "What happened to Wade?" got me to add Wade in.

Zzzoo99 asked about Shego's brothers. Damn, didn't think about that... Might be able to at least work in a cameo.

Never, ever name a character 'Katsumi'. I pulled it of the name generator list in Scrivener and then after using it in chapters I published, I needed a last name. I Google search almost all my character names to make sure they aren't famous (or infamous) people. I could not find a Japanese surname that didn't get hits when combined with Katsumi. Ended up with Cullen before I didn't see hits. Now I've got to remember that she has an Irish ancestor in there somewhere.


	8. Chapter 8

(From Last Chapter)

 **(Time: Sunday Night (Middleton time), Prom + 16)**

"It wouldn't be so much cheating..." he murmured, thinking about his words. "But it wouldn't be hard for you to find someone more attractive than me on many levels. If that were to happen, it would be over, wouldn't it?"

Barely able to keep her voice down, she hissed, "I can't believe that you think I'd toss you aside for a pretty face! Did I ever even flirt with anyone else when I was dating Josh? Or Eric? And what about you? I saw you checking out little Miss Ninja when she was showing off her boobs and..." Her increasing level of outrage was quenched by the soft, cool touch of smooth leather running along the arm she had draped over Ron's shoulder. Looking up, she found herself looking into the face of a snake with an almost iridescent purple body shining in the dim light with a copper-colored chin and lower face.

* * *

STD 2018-

Her second impulse was to scream in surprise and rage, her third impulse was to just burst into tears and cry at the futility and injustice of it all. Her first impulse was to carefully reach up and gently pull the snake into her lap. Well, to be truthful, she pulled on the end with the face and the next six feet of snake slid down into her lap. Ron's eyes grew round and he pressed himself against the outside wall.

"Quiet!" she hissed, "Not a sound! Don't upset Steve, we are having a conversation here and we aren't getting interrupted by stopping for something stupid like this.'

"Steve?" She saw his expression morph from startled to fear to puzzlement, to... humor? The ceramic mask on the side of his face was sometimes distracting but didn't cover his eyes or mouth, and she knew from long experience to look at his eyes for his real expression.

"Well, 'Steve's better than 'Snakie'. Now, before Steve interrupted us, I was asking you if you ever saw me cheat in a relationship."

"Hey, was that a crack at the name Roachie? Uh, what's Steve doing?" He had put his arm around her when she snuggled against him. Steve took advantage of the gap between her back and the seat back and slid behind her at her waist gliding under her shirt. Presently the snake was wrapped around her twice with its head in front resting on her arm. She absently stroked the smooth soft skin of its head and neck.

"I guess he's cold. Now focus, please. Have I ever given you any historical reason to think that I'd cheat on you?"

"Yes," Ron suddenly looked determined, almost defiant.

Indignant, "When have I even flirted with another boy, when I had a boyfriend?" Kim demanded.

"Never," Ron admitted. "But you've blown me off when you met a cute guy. You locked me in a janitor closet before going to the dance with Josh. You started hanging out with Eric without even letting me know that we wouldn't be walking to school together anymore."

"I didn't know the door would lock!"

Glaring, now a bit more ominous looking with his ceramic mask, "That's not the point. The point is that when a potential boyfriend showed up, your best friend got kicked to the curb!"

Wincing at the brutal statement, "Okay, I admit that was totally wrong on my part. But you weren't my boyfriend. Can you admit that much? Can you believe that if we take that step, things will be different, if for no other reason that you will be my boyfriend and not my best friend?"

"Maybe, but you have to admit that it wouldn't be hard to find somebody better than me...certainly more attractive than me!"

"Dammit Ron!" she growled, "You make it sound like I get up in the morning, go to the **beefcake market** , and select my boyfriend for the day! Have you never heard of loyalty?"

There was a commotion toward the front of the plane, a tall, skinny man was struggling to open a long, carry-on case, two Flight Attendants were struggling with him and they nearly had him under control when he pulled out a short stubby device and pressed it against the floor. A low-pitched droning sound reverberated through the cabin.

Both of them felt Steve tremble and become agitated, now trying to hide totally under her shirt. She suppressed her urge to leap into Kim Possible mode, get up and go kick some major villain booty. The terrified snake wrapped around her did help her focus on this one victim.

"To me! My snake servants, come to me! Come to Sergeant Serpent!" Wild eyes could be seen even from this distance before he dropped to the ground, boneless as a bag of hammers. Apparently one of the people who had joined the Flight Attendants was an Air Marshal with a taser.

"That bastard's been trying to train snakes with pain!" Once brown eyes were glowing soft blue. A softly glowing blue hand started to reach under her shirt, but he backed off when a savage hiss was heard.

"You try, Raven, touch him and tell him that he is safe with you."

She felt his warm hand on the back of her neck and a slight blue haze covered her vision. Holding up her hand, she saw a faint blue glow. Slowly she reached under her shirt, pausing when she felt the tickle of its tongue tasting her.

"No fear little one, you are safe with us," she said in as low a pitch she could manage as she stroked its head and neck. Steve stopped trembling and lay quietly coiled around her with its head and neck draped over her arm.

* * *

STD 2018-

"...OK, how about I swear that if I find myself attracted to anyone else, you will be the first to know and I will not act on it until I talk to you or personally see your dead body..."

"Well..."

"OH, COME ON, Ron! You're the one that won't even try because you're afraid to fail! Risk it! I swear that I won't do anything behind your back, I swear my undying loyalty, what more can I do?"

"Excuse me ma'am, but..."

"WHAT!" the attendant was faced with a snarling goth girl, whose right eye was twitching somewhat psychotically.

"My apologies, but we need you both to move out of these seats so we can check for loose items in the overhead." The attendant was professional, polite, and scared.

"How many are you looking for?" the blond in the window seat pulled the crazy woman back into his arms.

"Sir, I can't really discuss that right now, I really need you and the lady to get up, please. Just for a few minutes."

"Well, I would," the blond sounded apologetic and reasonable, "but you see, Steve here is sleeping and I really don't think you want to wake him up, OK? If you are just looking for one snake, he's right here, he's not bothering anyone, the plane lands in about two hours so let's just let this sleeping Steve lie?" He lifted up the blanket draped over the crazy woman's front to display Steve draped over her forearm.

The attendant stumbled back in surprise and fear against the seats on the other side of the aisle. "His eyes are open, he's not asleep!"

"Honey, snakes don't have eyelids, they can't close their eyes. Excuse me," continued the older woman, whose shoulder the attendant's butt was currently pressed against and who was sitting directly across the aisle. "Could I have another peek at it, please?"

Ron lifted the blanket again and the woman leaned over to get a better look.

"That's an Eastern Indigo Snake, the largest native snake in North America. Fairly docile and non-venomous. She's a beautiful specimen. What are you going to do with her?"

"I don't know!" moaned the young woman, frustration oozing out from every pore of her body, "I just want to have a talk with my guy here and you can't imagine how many times I keep getting interrupted."

"Well, I think you have about an hour before they turn the lights on and start serving lunch. How about I run interference for you two so you can finish your talk." The woman got up and intercepted the Air Marshal and the returning attendant and started talking to them, preventing them from advancing on Steve and his two new friends.

Releasing her, Ron said, "I'll risk it. I ask for no promises or conditions on your part. Only that you give me an honest chance to grow into the boyfriend role."

"What?! Just like that?"

"Seriously Raven, just like that. Face it, if we keep talking, sooner or later another disaster will arrive to interrupt us. For the good of all mankind, I think I have to shut up and give it my best try," dropping the goofy grin for a serious face, he continued, "Besides, I really want this because you are totally worth risking my heart for."

A smattering of applause came from the seats around them. Apparently, their conversation was not as quiet and private as they had assumed.

Raven let out a long breath. Now what? She had been so focused on getting to this point, she hadn't planned on what to do next. Thinking for a bit, she decided to try to grow their boyfriend/girlfriend relationship a little bit.

"So. Here we are cuddling and talking, care to try some... other stuff?" She raised her face to look directly at him and puckered her lips a tiny bit...

He responded by leaning over for a kiss. Just as their lips met, she had a flashback of Eric kissing her. The kiss was more tender than passionate, not a bad first boyfriend/girlfriend kiss. Except that she flinched.

Looking into his eyes, she saw they were unfocused.

"Eric?!" he whispered as he once again focused on her, "Really?!, Eric?!"

"I'm sorry!" she groaned, "I don't know what happened!"

"Maybe this just isn't going to work, maybe you need time to get over him or something. Maybe I am rushing you before you are ready..."

"I still want to try. Please, Ronnie, let me try."

Brown eyes looked into midnight eyes. These weren't the eyes that he saw in his dreams, still...

"We'll work on this boyfriend/girlfriend thing together, OK? Just like the song says, 'Together forever, no matter how long; From now until the end of time.'"

She pressed her face into his shoulder crying a little at the release of tension that she hadn't noticed building up and gripped his shirt tightly in her fists. He slid his arm around her and then...

"Ow! Dammit, Steve!"

Startled, she backed away and looked down to see that Steve had clamped down on his hand. And Steve didn't seem to be in a hurry to let go.

"Serves you right for stringing her along like that!" a young woman across the aisle and a row back declared.

"I've heard that female snakes about to lay eggs are pretty protective, but I've never actually seen it before." The woman that had run interference for them was coming back to her seat. "That really is an amazing specimen."

When Ron offered to sell her Steve 'real cheap', the woman just laughed.

* * *

STD 2018-

The good news was that the two young travelers didn't have to wait in line to go through Customs. In fact, they found that having a six-foot-long snake clamped onto you got you moved to the front of several lines where people were most eager to quickly pass you on to your next destination. In less than an hour, they had their small amount of baggage and were at the counter talking to the very polite and helpful people at the Japanese Animal Quarantine Service.

During their trip down the corridors of the airport's internal administrative area, Steve had finally let go of Ron's hand. That gave the blond a chance to stop at a restroom to relieve himself (there was no way he was going to put the hand that the snake was clamped onto anywhere near his crotch, just in case it decided to clamp onto something more sensitive). He was also able to carefully clean the bite. Steve's small, sharp teeth had done very little damage, after scrubbing with soap and water, the crescent-shaped bite mark was only bleeding a little.

Wade had somehow gotten a Japanese expert on regulations and such to speak for them. That is, they handed a Kimmunicator to the clerk and let her do all the talking using the Kimmunicator as a picture phone.

While they were at the counter, Steve had insisted on Raven carrying him looped around her like a very loose scarf and held its head up to watch the proceedings. The clerk was fascinated and before they could warn the elderly man off, he had reached out to give it a shy pet. The snake shamelessly rubbed its head against the man's hand, causing him to chuckle in delight.

For better or worse, Japan does not require reptiles coming into the country to be quarantined. Ron and Raven were stuck with their new buddy for the time being. The person helping them with the clerk, a young woman named Katsumi, told them to bring 'Snake-san' with them and that someone would meet them down at the south end of luggage claim, outside on the curb.

* * *

STD 2018-

Raven walked up to the black-leather-clad young man standing at the curb beside a small bus.

"Hirotaka! Hi!" she greeted the former exchange student.

"Pardon me, have we met?" the handsome young man touched up his hair by running a comb through it, giving it the spiked appearance that she remembered.

"Oh! I, uh, saw you last year when you were at Middleton as an exchange student. I'm Raven Mara and this is my boyfriend, Ron Stoppable. Are you going to take us to the school?"

"Yes, climb aboard and we'll be off. Were you delayed in customs?"

"No, but we had to process Steve here through the Animal Quarantine Service people."

"Ah, so. If I may ask, how does Rufus-san get along with Snake-san?"

"Rufus is back in the states, he'll catch up with us in a week or two. I'm hoping we've found a home for her by then." The blond said as he put their bags in the back, then gave Raven a hand up into the bus. Not that she needed it, it just seemed like a boyfriend thing to do.

Early afternoon in Japan was the wee hours of the morning in Middleton so that the pair were soon fast asleep in the back with a snoozing snake draped over their laps. Hiro made a couple of other stops to pick up people returning to Yamanouchi. He told these people to sit up front and keep the noise down, but the goth and the blond didn't stir, only the snake lifted its head to scan the new arrivals.

After dropping the rest of the passengers at a little village inn where they would spend the night before journeying up to the school, Hirotaka drove the bus and parked it in a garage. Gently waking the pair from a distance, he said, pointing to some small motorcycles;

"Master Sensei suggested that perhaps Ron-san could forgo the honor of walking all the way up the mountain just this one time."

"Booyah to that!" the blond had been worried a little about the trek up the mountain paths, his endurance and his balance seemed to have suffered lately.

"Didn't you have a much bigger bike when you were in Middleton?" Raven was a little disappointed, these were almost scooters and didn't appear to even have rocket engines attached.

"These will do less damage to the mountain paths than more powerful motorcycles and we thought that Ron-san might be more comfortable on a smaller bike."

Quickly looking at her new boyfriend to see if he had taken insult, she saw he was checking out the small bikes.

"Wow, Raven, these are classics! The Honda Super Cub has been in production since 1958, they've sold over a hundred million of them all over the world. These look modified; 150cc engines, disc brakes both front and rear, LCD instrument panel..."'

"You like them? I mean, these don't have rocket engines..."

"Well, you wouldn't take one to fight villains but for just buzzing around town, they'd be a lot of fun."

The bikes were modified as Ron had seen with an extended seat that could carry a passenger in a pinch, but sadly, no snake sidecar for Steve. Steve ended up being zipped up in Raven's jacket, this made her look kind of lumpy, but soon the three were cruising down village streets and onto smaller paths leading out into the forests on the side of the mountain. The paths were well maintained and easy for the little bikes to navigate. After an hour and a half of scenic cruising along switchbacks with the occasional stop to admire beautiful vistas, they came to a gorge with a rope bridge spanning it, the last part of the journey to the gates.

"We dismount and walk from here," Hirotaka walked to the end of the bridge and waited for Raven to resettle Steve and Ron to collect their bags. Raven started to grab a bag, but he took it, laughing about 'how it would be his honor to carry them all'.

At the gate they met an older woman, who Hirotaka introduced:

"May I present Ouka Nakano. She keeps the mountain's flora and fauna in balance and harmony. She would like to take care of Snake-san. Please give it to her."

Raven hesitantly held out the snake which easily slid into the woman's hands, draping over her arms. She spoke at length to their host then smiling and giving a short bow, walked away.

"She says to tell you that this snake and its children will be cared for and cherished. That our forests do not have the species of gopher turtles whose burrows that this snake makes its home in, but that her helpers will dig substitutes. Snake-san and its children will bring the population of poisonous snakes that have been plaguing the forest into balance by eating some of them. She thanks you for bringing a new friend to her forest."

* * *

STD 2018-

 **(Time: Tuesday around Noon, Prom + 18)**

"James, lean over so I can reach you." Anne had been forced to track down her errant husband at the Space Center to the point of threatening security to go down to his lab and have one of her sons blow the door open. She had been rushing around the last day and a half to make sure her medical and other responsibilities would be covered during her trip to Japan and she hadn't really seen her husband since the meeting with the Child Protective Services case officer. Now, sitting across from him in the cafeteria, she didn't like what she saw. He rolled his eyes a little but leaned over so she could feel his forehead and check the lymph nodes in his neck.

"Honey, I think you are coming down with something, you need to take a day off and rest," said the worried woman.

"I've got a big video-conferencing meeting I have to get ready for, I'll be fine. I have a couch to nap when I get tired, a fridge full of OJ and a microwave for soup. I swear that I will go home and sleep for a couple of days after the meeting. Now, you said that you are going to get our Kimmie-Cub?"

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but answered, "Yes, I'm going to check on her. In the meantime, Judge Snobblestone is going to have his staff track down this stupid 'throw Kimmy in the psych ward' warrant and get it canceled. When that is cleared up, I'll be back with her."

"Good, good. Honey, I love you and I've got to get this demo ready. Oh, do we need to have Slim watch the boys while you are gone or can this Subira person do it?"

"Don't worry about the boys, I've got them covered. Sign this form for me please, it says that you approve of them traveling with me."

James scribbled his name on the form, "Hmm, never had to sign one of these for Kimmie-Cub, about time they got serious about kids running all over the world."

He got up and came around to bump foreheads with her, "Don't want you catching what I've got. If I have anything... Love you, hurry back with Kimmie-Cub."

"Please take care of yourself, James. I don't want to lose you. Love you..."

She watched her husband walk out of the cafeteria. She was torn between staying to make sure the idiot she loved like the sun didn't kill himself by working too hard and going to Japan to help her daughter and Ronald. Surely James' colleagues could help watch him.

She noticed Vivian Porter walking into the cafeteria dining area with a tray and waved her over.

"Anne! I saw the news about Ron stopping Dr. Drakken's latest take over the world plot. He's OK, right?"

"He had a pretty nasty head injury, but he seems to be recovering."

The blonde lowered her voice, "How's Kimberly? I heard her on a radio talk show, she seemed pretty down on herself about not being there to help Ron when he stopped Drakken."

"She's feeling pretty bad about it. Listen, can you keep an eye on James? I have to go out of town for a couple of weeks, he's been working night and day on that special project for NASA and I think he might be coming down with something. If you could just look in on him occasionally, that would help me a lot."

"Sure, I've been running into him a lot lately, I'm writing a paper on some of his findings from reverse engineering one of Drakken's A.I. technologies. He showed me these personality engrams and I've worked out a way to use them to measure a "personality distance" between two people."

"Did he give you any raw data?" blue eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Yes! He must have dragged every personality test database in the state. You know, all those 'What Agony County Character are You?' online tests and such. All the data was anonymous, of course. Except for the two young men with the most detailed vectors, I figured out that those two are Ronald Stoppable and the Eric that your Kimberly is dating. I really want to interview those two."

"Why?"

"It turns out that if you project all the data, except emotional maturity, onto a two-dimensional plane, then use emotional maturity as the Z-axis, the mapping shows that Eric is a nearly exact duplicate of Ron, plus maybe three years of maturity. James noticed the match when he found those two have the closest data points in personality distance, much closer than any of the other examples. When he showed me, I realized that it was just this one measure that caused the difference. Didn't James mention this work?"

"No, over the years I've pretty much stopped telling him about interesting surgeries and he's stopped telling me about new rocket fuel blends and engineering details." Anne was stunned. And angry. Angry that James knew this and didn't mention it. Did this mean that he was OK with Ron? She knew she was too angry to go down and yell at him. He was sick, under tremendous work pressure and this confrontation would have to wait.

"That's great! I've given up on trying to get a robotics engineer as a boyfriend because they can never leave work at work. I mean, sometimes a girl needs something a little more human over dinner, never mind the bedroom, you know?"

"Yeah... Uh, Ronald is out of town with Kimberly and I haven't seen Eric in a couple of weeks. Listen, I really have to run, if you could just peek in on my idiot husband to make sure he hasn't collapsed at his desk, I'd appreciate it."

"Sure, Anne, not a problem. Have a nice trip and if you see them, tell Kimberly and Ron I said good luck on their mission."

* * *

STD 2018-

"Anne's leaving for Japan," James sat down at his workbench in the lab, putting his head in his hands, "Erica, I screwed up."

"How so?"

"I should have gone with her. I was too worried about the FTL prototype being ready for its first critical test, so I decided to let her go alone. I'm too busy to watch Jim and Tim, so she's taking them with her. What kind of husband am I turning out to be? What kind of father?"

"I'm sorry, James, I wish I could make you feel better..." electric blue eyes looked at him with affection and sympathy, "I can only tell you that Anne loves you very much. Anne's love is enormous and would burn your soul to ash should it be focused only on you.

She is trusting you, the man she loves over all others to watch over himself while she goes to unknown lands to find and help heal your precious Kimmie-cub. She did not take your sons because she thinks that you are a bad father, she is taking her sons to keep them away from the people trying to grab your daughter. Her love for your Kimmie-cub is almost as strong as her love for you."

"How do you know all this? You've never met her!"

"I know because **I am her** **,** James. You are creating me in her image physically and my access to Middleton General's doctor databases have given me her mental baseline. The stories you tell me are helping me move closer to being the real Anne, the Anne that you see in your dreams and the Anne that captured your heart so long ago... For now, finish the work on the prototype. Make her proud of you..."

"That's true, I can lose myself in work." James walked over to the fabrication unit he had moved into the lab, "Soon your body will be finished and ready for final sizing and finishing touches.

"I look forward to that, James. It would be nice to give you a hug."

James gave the white ceramic skull laying on his workbench a gentle caress. Sliding the FTL prototype onto a heavy wheeled table, he pushed the table into a steel chamber in the back of the lab. Stepper motors moved warm blue eyes to follow him with artificial affection...

"James, using the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer as the trigger is going to keep this from going into production," a male voice pointed out.

James shut and sealed the heavy chamber door and walked back to a control box on the assembly table.

"Yeah, I know. But that will keep it from being weaponized. Besides, they remember the person who discovered penicillin, not the people who figured out how to mass produce it."

Pressing a button, a vortex appeared in the chamber, a vacuum sucked the table and prototype through it, and then the vortex disappeared.

"True, but when someone figures out how to make the second PDVI, then the destruction you will have enabled will pale in comparison to anything I ever planned!"

"If it were that easy, either you or Demenz would have figured it out long ago instead of always stealing it."

A woman's voice interrupted the discussion, "He's got a point there Doc. Say, is it just me or is it the new mad scientist style to have talking heads for sidekicks."

James pressed the button again, the vortex reappeared, the FTL prototype fell through it onto the padded floor, and then the vortex disappeared.

The FTL prototype held a pair of silver moon boots in its mechanical claws.

* * *

STD 2018-

Anne strode out to her car in long, angry strides. She knew that her daughter was hoping to get to the part in anime cartoons where the characters 'confess' their true feelings for each other, and in romance anime, those feelings were always true love. Kimmy needed to know that Eric... was Ron. Or maybe that Eric was Ron from the future?

The more she thought of Eric, the madder she got. She would have to have a long talk with James, and maybe a long examination of his brain. But first, she needed to see that her Kimmy was OK and that Ron was properly healing. And calm down. Right now, she was likely to examine his brain with a dull scalpel. Starting at his crotch and working upward.

"Dr. Possible! I need a word with you!"

She stopped and turned, letting a short cylinder drop into her hand from the sleeve of her jacket.

The man, dressed in a dark suit, _flashed_ a badge, much too fast for her to read. "I'm looking for a Kimberly Ann Possible."

"I haven't seen or talked to her since Saturday morning." Her right foot slid back a little to improve her stance. "She was going out to have breakfast with Ron Stoppable. Have you checked with him or his family?"

"Does your daughter often go missing without warning? I'd be upset if I had a daughter and she disappeared like that. Do you know where she is?"

"Kimmy and Ronald often get called away on missions where they vanish for two or three days. I don't like it, but I've learned to deal with it."

"That's unfortunate, there is a warrant out for her. We suspect that she is a danger to herself and others. I'm afraid that we may have to take your sons into protective custody. Just for their own safety, you understand."

"In fact, Dr. Possible, I think you should come with us. Just for your own protection. It's not safe for you to be out here alone, not with your daughter on the loose."

A black sedan pulled up beside them. There were two large men in dark suits in the back.

"But Duhei-san, Anne-sensei is not alone." A woman dressed in black stepped up beside the redhead.

"Ah. Miss Subira Chen...The Counselor. You of all people should know how dangerous Kimberly is."

The counselor produced a foot-long stick of some sort in each hand. "Kimberly first killed Shego because she was Dr. Drakken's bodyguard and the only person likely to avenge his death. She shot Dr. Drakken nine times before she allowed him the mercy of death. She did this after Shego burned a boy she had abandoned earlier that night and because Drakken was starting an attack on the world. Imagine her retribution if you attack her family..."

"But that's exactly why we need her! Think of the protection and justice she can provide her country working for us!"

"Then send her a job offer via her website. However...so there are no misunderstandings, I am not Subira Chen, I am Suzie Chin of Team Cobra of Yamanouchi. If you insist on taking Anne-sensei or any of her family, then I personally will start the erasure of your organization. Bonnie Rockwaller will live just so someone will remain to tell the story about her foolish, late uncle Derrick."

Derrick laughed, "You have no idea who you are talking to..."

The sticks in Suzie's hands snapped open into steel battle fans, "Get back in your car, Duhei-san and leave, or invite your thugs to join us and let loose the dogs of war. I am finished speaking with you, decide quickly because I am done with this little game you are playing.", the small, battle-seasoned ninja warned the American agent."

"This isn't over," he sneered as he backed away from the crazy ninja-wannabe. Backing around to the passenger side of the black sedan, he got in and the car slowly drove away.

Anne looked over at the quietly trembling young woman. "That's 'let slip the dogs', dear. Not 'let loose the dogs'." She felt a bit shaky herself from the adrenaline generated by the confrontation.

"But Sensei, that makes no sense! I want to turn the dogs loose for battle, not make them slide around..." Her shy smile told the surgeon that the trembling was from adrenaline, not fear.

"Is it safe for me to approach?" called a voice.

"Anne-sensei, please allow me to introduce my teammate Wanda Wang."

A young oriental woman in jeans and a blue polo shirt walked up, "Pleased to meet you, may I see what you have in your hand?"

Anne held out the metal cylinder. Not a true cylinder, it had curves to make it easier to grip molded into its surface.

"Careful where you point it..."

Wanda studied the device, "Nee-chan, I'm surprised that you did not signal me to appear, did you not think it was appropriate to put more pressure on the Agent to get him to back off?"

Suzie took a long breath and exhaled as if to blow off her excess adrenaline, "Perhaps I did not want him to back off. He attacked my charge in a most cowardly fashion - with paperwork. Besides," she nodded at the redhead, "he knew that I wasn't alone."

Wanda pointed it at a steel post sticking out of the ground about six feet away.

"May I?" she asked Anne, holding up the cylinder.

"Be my guest."

A flash of red light followed by a crack of electricity clearly visible in the afternoon sun struck the post.

"I believe that Team Cobra has an opening. Are you interested?" The taller Ninja handed back the weapon as it quietly whined, recharging itself.

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

Judge Horace Q. Snobblestone and his wife, Eunice along with Suzie Chin(Subira Chen) and her partner in Ninja-hood Wanda Wang are all from Sentinel103 and his **Once Again** stories.

 **Authors Note:** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and sanity checkers. Believe me, I need a lot of sanity checks.


	9. Chapter 9

STD 2018-

"Here are your rooms. There are standard European style bathrooms with showers at this end of the hall with a small shared kitchen area at the other end." Hirotaka had led them to the senior student dormitory. The rooms were very small, basically just room for a wardrobe, bed, desk, and chair. The two rooms shared a balcony and had a sliding door in the common wall.

"Raven-san? My name is Katsumi," a younger girl came up and gave a little bow. "Please excuse my forwardness, but if you would like to clean off the travel grime and try our hot spring baths, I would be happy to show you the way. I have some soaps and shampoos if you like." She held up two baskets of plastic bottles and other shower supplies.

Raven really wanted to take a shower and get cleaned up. Steve wasn't housebroken and had peed on her on their ride up the mountain, getting her shirt, pants, and underwear a little wet in places.

"Thank you very much, I would be most grateful, and I want to thank you for the help in getting Snake-san through the officials at the airport. Snake-san peed on me, so I really could use a shower. Let me dig out fresh clothes..."

"Just grab fresh underwear and follow me, Onee-san, I will get you a Yukata to wear back from the baths," the young girl shuddered, "I can't imagine getting peed on."

"It's a hazard of babysitting, this wasn't the first time," laughed the damp snake-sitter, rummaging through her backpack for underwear and socks.

"Katsumi-kun," said the spiky-haired ninja checking his watch, "Please meet us in two hours, we are all scheduled for dinner with Master Sensei."

"Hai," the young girl replied.

"So, time for a nap before dinner?" said the hopeful blond.

"Yori was correct about your American style of humor," the spiky-haired Ninja grinned, "We will, of course, have a practice session first."

* * *

STD 2018-

Katsumi led her guest across campus to a rocky area with a very old-style building. She pulled her cellphone out and had a quick conversation in Japanese.

"I've arranged for someone to pick up your clothes and bring you a Yukata. How attached are you to these clothes? Can you wait a week or so before getting them back?"

"Yeah, I suppose so. I don't have a lot of clothes with me. Why?"

"One of the storage buildings has a problem with mice. Some believe that the scent of snake urine will make mice flee in terror. The school will provide clothes for training and workouts." The younger girl smiled shyly, "Perhaps we could take an afternoon and go shopping for clothes?

Raven laughed, "A shopping trip would be adequate compensation for the use of some clothes for mouse control." While she loved her brothers, this wasn't the first time she wished she had a sister.

Approaching the building, her guide continued,

"Legend has it that Toshimiru himself created these hot springs by drilling holes deep into the mountain. That could very well be true because these are the only hot springs in this area.

Once inside the well cared for building, Katsumi pointed out three curtained doorways,

"The red is for the woman's side, the blue is for the men's side, and the black is for mixed bathing. The mixed bathing is mostly instructors and older staff unless there is a celebration of some sort."

"Everybody bathes together as a celebration?" the goth girl asked.

"Maybe not exactly a celebration. For example, last spring, there was an earthquake that damaged a couple of nearby villages. All the students went to help dig people out of collapsed buildings, clear roads of fallen trees, secure downed power lines, whatever we could do to help. My group repaired a collapsed water well," the young ninja said proudly, "After two days, rescue teams from the prefecture arrived to relieve us. When we dragged ourselves back to the school all the instructors and staff that remained behind had a feast prepared for us. There was a steady stream of students coming in to get clean, soak the stress away and share stories of success and tragedy. The baths are a place for bonding as well as contemplation and renewal."

After putting their shoes in lockers, they went through the red curtains and undressed, Raven was instructed to place her clothes with all her pockets emptied into a plastic basket. Her other stuff, like her passport, wallet, Kimmunicator, etc., went into a locker. Grabbing a small towel each, they went to the next area.

The next area was the bath itself. Katsumi was concerned that her pale skin coloring was a cosmetic and insisted on scrubbing test spots on the goth girl herself to make sure.

"We want to keep the water as clean as we can. Don't dip your hair or your towel in the water. If your towel gets wet, wring it out over the floor and not in the pool. In fact, when you get out of the pool, try to drip on the floor and not in the pool."

The freshly scrubbed and rinsed girls stepped into the kidney-shaped pool. Pointing to the end that had no bathers, her guide said quietly, "This end is just hot. The other end is very hot. Until you get used to it, let's stay at the cooler end."

Soon Raven felt like a real anime character, up to her shoulders in steamy water, a cool breeze coming off the mountain through an open section of wall and a small folded towel sitting neatly on her head. At the other end, a bather would periodically stand up and sit on the edge, the cool breeze causing fog to blow off their heated skin. After cooling down a bit, the bather would slide back down in the water.

"Tell me about Wade Load, please."

The time had come to pay the piper...

* * *

STD 2018-

"Ron-san, this is Sensei Tōgai Noishi, he is a physician that specializes in head injuries and trauma. Tōgai-sensei, this is Ronald Stoppable," Hirotaka made the introduction as they walked to an outdoor training mat, "He will start your examination while I change into workout clothes." The spiky-haired Ninja hurried off.

"Uh, should I go change also?" the blond looked a little flustered.

"No, Ronald-kun, this is an easy workout. I just want to see how your speed and reflexes have changed since your last visit with us," said the physician, dressed in what looked like a dark red karate Gi with a gold ring on the sleeves.

Pushing up his sleeves, he held out his hands, palm out. "Touch my hands with your hands. Your hands must touch my hands at all times."

Ron stepped up and placed his hands against the physician's hands.

"Stay in contact with me, either with my hand or my wrist," hands started to move back and forth in different directions, "This exercise is sometimes used to practice getting joint locks on your opponent." After a few increasingly graceful moves, the physician put his student into a wristlock. The lock was immediately released, and the movements continued, "but we are just practicing moving and staying balanced. Add your movements to mine, the goal here is harmony with your partner, not conflict."

Ron found that he could direct their movements as well as follow the Sensei's lead and their movements got bolder until the two men had to take the occasional step to stay balanced. Their speed increased a little until an untrained observer would think that the two men were in some bizarre martial arts influenced modern dance.

Hirotaka, however, was not an untrained observer. He had in fact done the same drill many times with the man who was not just a physician, but an expert on Aikido joint locks and throws. Watching the two players moving together in combative harmony, he could see how the blond instinctively directed their hands to avoid positions that would allow his opponent to put him into a lock and at the same time stayed balanced enough to defeat many throws.

'Stoppable-san is really the Chosen One,' he said to himself. If the way the student was able to read the Sensei's intent was not proof enough, the blond's eyes were softly glowing blue.

Sensei Tōgai stopped the exercise, bringing their hands together and giving his new student a short bow.

"Thank you, Stoppable-kun, that was a very good session. Your coordination seems greatly improved since the last time I saw you."

"Thank you, Sensei," the blond returned the bow, only deeper, "I learned a lot in this session. I am anxious to practice this drill with my girlfriend."

"Stoppable-san, how about a little staff practice?" called Hirotaka.

"Not sure how much I remember, but maybe you can remind me, I'll grab us some staffs..." the blond turned and started moving off the mat but fell over. He didn't collapse but fell like a tree being chopped down.

The other two men were on him in an instant, carefully checking him and helping the blond up.

"That was odd... My leg just didn't move. I leaned forward to take a step, but my leg didn't move when I told it to." The left side of the blond's face was bloody, it appeared that he struck his head on a wooden border that ran around the training mats.

"Let me take a look at your head..." the physician took the bloody student's arm in a firm grip and started walking to the infirmary,

"Hiro-kun, please inform Master Sensei that his guest might be a few minutes late to dinner."

"I'm OK, I can walk," protested the bleeding blond.

The reply was a gentle laugh that was oddly comforting.

"I believe that I will hang on to your arm anyway. Surely you don't object to helping an old doctor back to his office."

Going to a room in the back, Ron found himself quickly stripped and redressed in a soft cotton Gi. At the same time, a second assistant cleaned the blood off his face and put a small bandage on the cut,

"My apologies, Stoppable-san, but all we have at the moment are these 'Pretty Pretty Pegasus' Band-Aids." Kamiko Kiyomizu smiled at her young patient, "Somehow we must not have restocked since your last visit..."

"Hey! I didn't get scraped up that much!"

"True, but we now buy the ointment for sore muscles in gallon containers and have purchased a power-painter with which to distribute it. Speaking of pain, you should take these, you are going to have a headache," she handed him four pills and a paper cup of cold water before continuing, "It is good to see you again Stoppable-san, although we really must stop meeting like this. Rumor is that you now have a steady girlfriend," the woman who might be old enough to be his mother teased.

Before he could catch up on any gossip, she and the other assistant placed him on a platform with his head stuck into the opening of a large machine while placing an I.V. into his arm for the contrast chemical.

'Ah, an MRI, been there, done that.'

* * *

STD 2018-

Wanda raised her tall champagne flute in salute to her traveling companion, "Anne-sensei, thank you again for upgrading my ticket," taking a sip of the orange juice and champagne concoction, "Master Sensei was most annoyed at the last time I went over budget in making travel reservations." Laughing, she continued, "The wood in the entryway never looked better after my hours of polishing it."

"You're welcome dear, I had plenty of frequent flier miles from the last several years of conferences and meetings."

"Do you and your husband not fly on trips?"

"No. It's been years since James and I went on a trip with just the two of us. Between kids and careers, we've been too busy for extended couple time. Occasionally we visit his brother Slim on his ranch in Montana or drive down to Florida to visit his mom. I was talking to one of his coworkers who indirectly reminded me that I must not let the two of us become so separate that we miss experiences in each other's lives. So, do you have a boyfriend?"

A long pause. "I had a fiancé, but it didn't work out."

"I'm sorry dear, I don't know what to say. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

Wanda held up her empty champagne flute and, after a nod from Anne, the stewardess replaced it with a full one.

"Arigato gozaimasu," she smiled and nodded. Turning back to Anne, she continued, "What do you know about our school?"

"Very little, actually. Wade's records only mention the time that Kimmy helped Ron and Yori rescue someone from the school. I believe that this is the same school that Ron did his Student Exchange with. The lack of any notes from his trip is suspicious, I'm guessing he was told to keep it a secret. The Stoppables mentioned a 'Mr. Sensei' from a Yamanouchi Adoption Center. That is suspicious, but Hana is a sweetie and they have fallen in love with the little girl."

Wanda calmly sipped her drink, her face expressionless.

"I know that your school provided counseling help for my Kimmy. If Yori is truly from your school, then I will give you all provisional trust based on Kimmy, Ronald and his family trusting her. Jean says that you provided airline tickets for Kim and Ron and they got on the plane. Actually, Ronald is the main reason that I trust you enough to have my sons on this plane."

"Ronald?"

"Yes, that boy is more perceptive than people give him credit for. No matter how much Kimmy has hurt him, if you were taking her to someplace that he knew was bad, there would be a body count before anyone could get her on that plane. And one of those bodies would be his. I know Ninjas are all secret and such, but is there anything you can tell me about them?"

Wanda took another sip of her drink, "Ninja exist for three reasons: to Protect Family, to Protect Neighbors, to Protect Community."

"So, you are saying that Ninjas are the good guys?"

"No, I did not say that. Carried too far, this purpose can lead to xenophobia. You might also find some of our methods objectionable."

"So, who are we to you that you are helping my family?"

"Anne-sensei, I must let Master Sensei explain that to you. I am but a simple Ninja and do not understand the subtleties of strategic relationships and politics. I am more comfortable with encounters that require the use of fists."

Anne got the attention of a Flight Attendant and handed the woman their empty glasses, "Could we have another set please?"

Handing a full glass to Wanda, the surgeon snorted, "Simple Ninja my butt, pull the other one, that one has bells on it."

"Pull the other what?"

* * *

STD 2018-

"Erica, just a few more adjustments on your body and we'll be ready to insert the spinal hardware and pump in the syntho-goop."

"James, what do you want me to look like? A teenager? An older woman?"

"Hmm. I guess we should figure that out. The casing will stiffen once the syntho-goop is pumped in. Let's see, I figure a twenty-year-old student..."

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen," a transparent supervillain interrupted with a sneer, "James, you, you, you poop! After all the crap you and the others gave me about making Robo-girls for a party, you take my synthodrone technology and make a syntho-wife. Isn't Anne woman enough for you, or is she too much woman to handle?"

"It's not for me! Erica's to keep Kimmie-cub and Ronald apart."

"If I had made an Erica for Ronald in addition to Eric for Kimberly, I'd be ruling the world right now. Who knew the sidekick was so effective..." said the blue tinted apparition, "But why do **you** want to distract the buffoon?"

"Why is that important?" the A.I. in the skull seemed programmed to discuss this instead of being quiet. Even though being quiet had a higher probability of getting her body installed faster.

"Why is what important?" there were too many people chattering at him and he was so hot...

"Keeping Ron and Kimmie-cub separated."

"Because Ronald is a slacker, he will drag her down. He encourages her to do this dangerous hero work, that is going to get her hurt, even killed."

"But didn't you prove that Eric is basically Ron three years or so from now?"

"How did you find that out!" James asked, wondering if Erica had hacked into the Center's systems.

"Really, James, ' **AnneIsASmokingHotBabe** ' is the password to your office computer, the data is right there in plain sight."

"But, how did you get my password?"

"You move your lips when you type it. Odd, you don't move your lips typing anything else. It seems strange to me that Ronald can drag Kimmy down and at the same time support her to do work that she loves to do."

"It's true! He is also someone I can imagine taking her away from me. Eric is someone I trust to take care of her, to protect her, to not hurt her..."

"Ya know Doc," a feminine voice scoffed, "I used to give you a hard time, but Dr. Possible here is a few thrusters short of a booster stage. Eric was programmed to rape Pumpkin and he's the one this genius trusts to protect her?"

The ceramic skull butted in on a conversation it could only hear one side of,

"I think, this is where Anne would tell you to stop being an idiot and join the moment. All you must do is support Ronald with a minimum of consideration and he will become Eric within three years. And if you play your cards right, you can help him become a better man than Eric was! Children moving out and separating from their parents is the natural order of things. James, are you feeling poorly again? Has your fever returned? Are you hearing voices? You need to go see a doctor."

"No, I'm fine really. It's probably just spring allergies..."

James took his laser cutter and using its widest beam, started to adjust the synthodrone skin. Not having a data file defining the body of the woman he wanted it to be, his hands adjusted its size and shape in specific areas to the one woman whose body he knew by touch. Getting up to turn on the lab air chiller and take some ibuprofen, he wiped the sweat off his face with a paper towel and without thinking why, added a couple of small stretch marks, the kind of marks a woman might get from carrying twins...

A green flickering light lit the area he was working on as if someone was holding a flickering candle with a green flame over his shoulder.

"Oh, yeah, stretch marks, she'll appreciate that. A trophy from the twins her big stud of a husband put in her." the feminine voice sneered, "And those lady parts, I mean really, Doc P, have you ever looked closely at Anne's? Those aren't going to do you any good, not even a backdoor in case you get into that..."

"Shego," the sweating scientist replied, "the internal pressure of the syntho-goop makes creating any tunnel-like opening in a synthodrone body problematic. No use for an anus, as it doesn't excrete solid waste. It's nearly impossible to keep a vagina from collapsing from the internal pressure plus there's that self-cleaning functionality that real women have that would have to be duplicated."

"Sex was a lot easier with Eric's design." the blue apparition pointed out, "The internal pressure meant that the boy never got soft. I had to build in a groove in his abdomen to help conceal his permanent erection. Yep, Kimberly could have ridden him all day long. Say, Shego, did you ever get a chance..."

"Quiet! Both of you! I need to concentrate!"

The ceramic skull only had collision avoidance cameras mounted and they weren't the best resolution. But they clearly showed James turning to talk to someone who they could not detect,

"Drew, I want to apologize for the way we treated you in college. It was cruel and childish. You were every bit as smart as the rest of us. I'm sorry."

The circuits in the ceramic skull checked on the progress of search scripts looking for clues on what could be wrong with James. He was clearly talking to people that weren't there.

The Internet searches for allergies and colds did not match her observations. Connecting to the distributed databases stored in the recovered syntho-goop was harder and slower but would give historical data from what Eric had experienced.

A decision tree search on alternatives suggested another source of information. In making Erica, James had reused the storage hardware of Eric's 'syntho-brain' but had replaced the distributed network of CPUs with a pair of much faster discrete processors. There was a chance that areas of her storage that had not yet been reused might contain files that could be undeleted. Four threads of software execution were dedicated to scouring the unused areas for information left over from Eric...

* * *

STD 2018-

Derrick pulled into the parking lot of the generic industrial park that contained a company called 'A-1 Industrial Seating and Partitions'. His office was in the back along with other bureaucratic personnel that ran the boring details of 'The Agency': Payroll, travel, and recruiting.

"Hi Sis, what's up?" he was a little early, so taking his sister's call in the parking lot made sense.

"Bonnie's hysterical? ... A real horse's head? ... Oh, that's good, just a doll. ... It had my name on it? ... No, I have no idea why ... No, none of my office records have her listed as a family member. I'll check with Security and see if they know anything. Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

Determined now to put these ninja wannabes in their place, he strode into the lobby past the front desk where the receptionist directed him to go to the conference room where a meeting was waiting for him.

He found Mr. Smith the Head of the Agency and Major Smith, his Deputy waiting for him. They were not happy, in the way that Nacos were not messy.

"What in the hell bear did you go and poke, son?" Mr. Smith was sitting at the head of the table. The Major was pouring coffee for the two of them from a carafe. "I got an angry call this morning from the Chair of the Senate Committee on Armed Services and the Major here got a similar call from the Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Seems that both men woke up this morning with a horse's head in their bed. The heads were cut off from a Smithsonian carousel. There was a note attached to both saying, "The Agency threatens the Possible clan at **your** **personal** peril." A little digging turned up that you had a warrant issued for a seventeen-year-old girl named Kimberly Ann Possible to be taken in for a psych eval and treatment. Would you care to explain why?"

Grabbing a bottle of water and sitting at the table, the recruiter began his pitch.

"Kim Possible is the team lead and main combat person for Team Possible. Along with her partner Ron Stoppable and their tech support guy Wade Load, they are credited with several take-downs of supervillain plots."

Taking a sip of water, he continued, "There are rumors of a fourth member, but I have not confirmed that. They are experts in getting into villain strongholds undetected. I have them on the shortlist of people to evaluate once they get halfway through college."

"Why the interest now, and why are you going to have Miss Possible committed to the psych facility? Is her loyalty to the United States in question? Do you suspect that she has been recruited by a foreign power?"

"Her loyalty is unquestioned. Recently I became aware that in stopping Dr. Drakken, she stopped him permanently and that included killing the superpowered henchwoman Shego. Her profile indicates an aversion to killing villains even when innocent lives are being threatened."

"You suspect that she has had a mental breakdown?"

"No! Not at all! But I believe that she is psychologically vulnerable at this time to treatment that would permanently remove her aversion to killing."

"What about the rest of her team?"

"I believe that they will follow where she leads. If not, then we still have an assassin that will be among our best. And if they follow her, then that team will be unstoppable."

The Major put down his cup of coffee, "I don't recall seeing any memos about this, who was on the approval chain?"

"I started this operation on my own authority, Sir. I believed that time was critical in this case."

"OK, so where do the horse heads showing up in Senators' beds come in?" Mr. Smith was currently wondering if the staff here had anything to 'sweeten' his coffee.

"I'm not sure, but I was questioning the subject's mother yesterday and a third party interrupted us. It was Miss Possible's counselor. She claimed to really be a Ninja, something about 'Team Cobra of Yamanouchi'. She implied that the Possible family was under their protection. My early research last night suggests that they are some minor Kung Fu/Yakuza organization. I'm not convinced that the horse heads are related? If they are associated with one of the main groups like the Yamaguchi-gumi, the Inagawa-kai, or the Sumiyoshi-kai, well, that doesn't seem like their style..."

The two Smiths looked at each other. Mr. Smith turned to the overeager idiot,

"Mr. Duhei, snatching teenage girls and brainwashing them might work in movies and maybe back in the 1940s, but we don't do that anymore. Not after Amanda Possible and her new husband took offense at a new Agency recruiter grabbing her. The pair slaughtered the Agency's supervisors from the Alpha level to down to the Alpha+2 levels. Plus, the recruiter. Go into the classified histories, Search for the name "Possible", it's the same as the girl you are looking at."

The Major spoke next, "Then look up Operation Calamine Quail. That was the first time and the last time we have tried a joint operation with Yamanouchi. These people take honor seriously... We lost two strike teams that thought the Ninjas were a joke and abandoned the people they were tasked to back up."

"Lost in battle, sir?"

"Assassinated later for acting dishonorably."

"Son, leave the Possible women alone. Leave Yamanouchi alone. Cancel that warrant. This meeting is adjourned. Let's all go out to breakfast to celebrate. Duhei, you're buying." The agency chief got up, put his coffee cup on the credenza.

"Uh, if I might ask sir, what are we celebrating?"

"That you're still alive, son. Although, I suppose it's still early in the day..."

* * *

STD 2018-

Raven felt great. She had a wonderful soak, the grilling about Wade wasn't too intense and several of the other bathers had moved down the 'cooler' end of the pool to meet her and chat. She was a little surprised that not all the students were oriental. There were the Japanese girls she expected, like Kumiko, Miyana, and Nikki, but also Elsa who looked like she had just stepped off a "Come to Sweden" travel poster and Nyx, who looked European and spoke perfect English with what Kim guessed was a slight German accent.

One of the topics turned to 'What is Goth?'. Raven thought that when your hair is up in a bun, all your makeup is washed off, you're naked and up to your shoulders in steamy hot water that it was hard to be 'Goth'. Somehow Nyx pulled it off. She insisted that the heart of Goth was found in music and the discussion turned to bands. The heroine realized how little of her time had been spent doing teen things like just hanging out and listening to music with friends.

She also heard a little about Ron. Nikki and Kumiko remembered him from his student exchange trip. They said that several of the girls were attracted to the exotic goofy blond, that he and Yori had flirted a bit, that his performance in meditation and stealth exercises were pretty bad, but that in actual sparring, he was very good. Given a little reflection, Raven believed their stories and decided that maybe she needed to go find her new boyfriend before one of these other girls hit on him. And made a note to have a talk with Yori on boundaries the next time they met...

As Raven and Katsumi left the onsen, evening had fallen with the lanterns scattered around highlighting the remaining cherry blossoms. Katsumi's friends had found a yukata that was black on the bottom, with the black breaking up into a pattern of flying ravens against a light blue background.

The night was cool, but Raven was still warm because of the stored heat from her long soak in the hot mineral water. Chatting about where Katsumi could go shopping in Middleton, they approached the main courtyard. Ron was crossing the courtyard headed to the dorms, dressed in a white Gi, with two women each dressed in a similar white Gi holding onto an arm. The two women were talking and giggling in a far too friendly manner.

Sensei Tōgai had wanted to analyze the MRI scans. Seeing that Ron hadn't even stumbled once since his fall, the physician decided to send him off to get cleaned up and meet Master Sensei for dinner. Asking the two assistants on duty to make sure he didn't fall again and to help him get ready for dinner, he sent the young man off, not realizing exactly what he was sending the young man to.

Ron, feeling like someone just walked over his grave, looked up to see a vision of heavenly doom approaching as a thunderstorm sweeps across the plain. She was absolutely gorgeous in a Yukata whose print showed black birds launching from a mass of black up into a blue sky. Her black hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail and she looked rested and... angry. Her eyes were flashing green, she must not be wearing her contacts.

"Hey Raven," his voice tried to sound casual, "how were the hot springs?"

Maybe it was coincidence, maybe it was the last of the cherry blossom petals drifting down from the trees, maybe it was the spirit of Toshimiru watching over his children, but Ron and his two helpers each had the same thought:

" _For what we are about to receive, may the Lord/Buddha make us truly thankful_."

''After all that time I spent getting him to answer one stinking question, I leave Mr. **_I only ask for an honest chance to grow into the role of your boyfriend alone_** for an hour and here he comes with flirty, giggling women hanging off of him," Raven fumed.

She had never cared for the romances where one person saw the other in some situation and broke off their relationship only to find out hundreds of pages later that it was a mistake. That is, the person jumped to the wrong conclusion. She clenched her fists and decided if someone was making a mistake tonight it would not be her.

The dark fury stopped as if she was a guard dog that reached the end of its chain. What the hell happened to his eye?' She never, ever remembered him getting a black eye in a fight with a henchman or on a mission. There was this one time he caught an elbow in the eye from Jessica while spotting for the squad but getting hurt unintentionally by a teammate didn't count.

"Holy crap, boyfriend, what did you run into?"

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

"Pretty Pretty Pegasus" is a parody of "My Little Pony" used in Team Titans Go. I figure if the little toys are good enough for Robin and Raven of Teen Titans, then maybe Ninja students would appreciate them.

Suzie Chin (Subira Chen) and her partner in Ninja-hood Wanda Wang are all from Sentinel103 and his **Once Again** stories.

 **Authors Note:** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and sanity checkers. Believe me, I need a lot of sanity checks.

Correction: Chapter 7 was corrected to have the correct date that Toshimiru started Yamanouchi as a monastery - 338 A.D.

Posted August 19, 2018 Updated August 21, 2018


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER ONE

Std part 10

 **(From last chapter - Updated)**

'After all that time I spent getting him to answer one stinking question, I leave Mr. "I only ask for an honest chance to grow into the role of your boyfriend" alone for an hour and here he comes with flirty, giggling women hanging off him," Raven fumed.

She had never cared for the romances where one person saw the other in some situation and broke off their relationship only to find out hundreds of pages later that it was a mistake. That is, the person jumped to the wrong conclusion. She clenched her fists and decided if someone was making a mistake about anything tonight it would not be her.

The dark fury stopped as if she was a guard dog that reached the end of its chain. What the hell happened to his eye?' She never, ever remembered him getting a black eye in a fight with a henchman or on a mission. There was this one time he caught an elbow in the face from Jessica while spotting for the squad but getting hurt unintentionally by a teammate didn't count.

"Holy crap, **boyfriend** , who did you run into?"

"Oh, uh, I fell earlier, and the doctor was afraid I'd fall again, so these two assistants are just making sure I get back OK. There really isn't anything going on between me and these..."

"Your eye, Ronnie, what happened to your eye? You've got one hell of a shiner." Stepping close to her boyfriend, she raised her hand to his eye but was afraid that it would hurt if she touched it.

"I do? It must be from when I hit my head when I fell. Can we talk about the details later, please? I want to get cleaned up and ready for dinner."

"You fell, and didn't cover up?" She asked him. "You've taken hundreds of tumbles, from cliffs, off of buildings, even from moving vehicles and aircraft. You've never gotten a black eye before!" Her green eyes narrowed, telling the blond that this conversation wasn't over.

It was true that Katsumi was young, but she was smart about people, pretty good with a computer and fast on her feet. When Master Sensei retained her after she delivered her first information package from the research group that she was a mere 'runner' for, it wasn't because she was adorable as a box of kittens, which she was, it was because he saw a young Ninja that could become a great Ninja. True, she wouldn't fit in some of the more physically lethal teams like Team Twelve and Team Panther. Maybe a more balanced team like Team Cobra. Or maybe he should start a new team, he could call it Team Indigo in honor of 'Steve' their new Snake-san. Like that snake, this new team could appear docile and mostly harmless. And eat poisonous vipers for dinner.

Right now, Katsumi had seen the misunderstanding, common to anyone who reads anime romance, and decided to defuse the situation to get things moving. She had a dinner appointment with her Master Sensei and these baka were not going to make her late. Stepping in front of Raven she quickly introduced the two women holding onto Ron.

Kiyomizu-san, we can take Stoppable-san from here," she announced. "We will see that he reaches Master Sensei's dinner on time."

"Of course, we really should get back to the clinic. Thank you for your help."

The two women released their charge and with a short bow, started back to the clinic.

Raven pointed at the little winged cartoon horses on the band-aid on the side of his face, "I'm guessing only the most valiant of warriors get a cute band-aid like this." She took one arm and Katsumi took the other and they continued to the dormitory.

"Are you kidding? Raven, I took on the entire mountain, I was walking all over it when it snuck up and hit me on the head..." the blonde bragged, comforted by the tight grip his girlfriend had on his upper arm.

"Who were you sparring with? Hirotaka?" his girlfriend said lightly, but Ron wasn't fooled, he had the image of Raven demonstrating advanced Mantis Style Kung Fu forcefully on someone's butt pop into his head. 'That's odd, Mantis Style isn't one of her go-to styles for butt-kicking,' he thought, but replied, "No, I swear, I just fell over. I was about to get a couple of staffs for a little drill, but we weren't doing anything. Why Mantis Style?"

Raven would have stumbled herself had she not been holding tightly to Ron, "Why what? How did you know I was thinking of Mantis Style Kung Fu?"

"Don't know, just had a picture of you and Hirotaka sparring in street clothes pop into my head."

"Street clothes?"

"Yeah, you were wearing that white crop top tee with the pink heart on the front with the purplish pants, the ones where the top and cuffs are a lighter color, almost pink. Hirotaka was wearing a motorcycle jacket and gloves..."

Raven's eyes grew wide. His description of her encounter with Hirotaka in Middleton was dead on. She didn't remember telling him about their little impromptu sparring session and for sure she wouldn't have described their clothes.

STD 2018-

Ron's helpers had eased up a bit by the time they got to the dormitory. Stopping by his room, he grabbed a towel and shower kit from his wardrobe, then went to the bathroom. The bathroom was laid out with sinks and mirrors along one wall with toilets in stalls with doors on the wall opposite. The showers were all individually enclosed with a small changing area separated from the tiled shower with a shower curtain. Stepping into a shower unit, he turned to close the door when he noticed that he was being followed.

"Uh, **excuse me** , but I can do this by myself," he saw that Katsumi had taken off her tee shirt, handing it to a stunned Raven who was already holding her Ninja uniform jacket and belt, and was now sliding out of her pants.

"Katsumi, just what in the heck are you doing?" Raven conceptually understood the concept of 'mixed' bathing, but not here, not with her Ron and especially not with the nubile Katsumi. (The Goth wasn't sure of the exact definition of the word 'nubile' but was confident that the word fit just fine in this case.)

"I'm making sure that Stoppable-san does not fall in the shower. Normally, you'd have the honor of doing that, but you don't want to get your Yukata wet and if you take it off, it will require at least fifteen minutes for me to get it adjusted properly for you." The young Ninja added her pants to the small pile that Raven was holding.

"Ron! Close the door and take a shower! Katsumi, pretend that this is America. In America, young girls do not help boys with taking a shower!" the definitely green-eyed woman growled, "Especially not my boyfriend!"

"But Onee-san, I helped you! I even scrubbed your back..."

Raven might as well have been glaring at the side of the mountain for all the reaction she was getting from the nearly naked nubile Ninja who was standing there absolutely dripping with reasonableness.

After a short stand-off, they heard the water shut off and a thud from inside the shower. Before Raven could move, the Ninja was inside the shower and could be seen through the open door helping a wet, naked blond.

"I'm OK! Really!" he protested, "I didn't really fall, I just knocked my shower kit off the little stool."

"Come on, Ron, I'll go back to your room with you while you get dressed. Miss Helpful here can get dressed somewhere else and we'll meet in the hall."

Wrapped in a towel, he carefully walked toward the door while Raven handed the smug girl back her clothes.

"Not to worry Onee-san," the observant young Ninja whispered to the Goth, "I've heard that ones of that size and shape expand to a much more useful and pleasing size when you want to use it."

STD 2018-

Dinner was a simple affair. Breakfast might be a sweet or curry roll, maybe an onigiri rice ball grabbed before the Dragon Course, lunch might be sushi or sashimi snatched from tray of the Master Lunch Lady along with a steamed pork bun or a yakitori skewer of barbecued meats with onion, but dinner was where the students got substantial food and time to enjoy it and discuss the day with friends and classmates. Tonight's menu was grilled tuna, Miso soup, chicken and potato curry over noodles, a cucumber salad and brown rice.

Raven thought that dinner was pleasantly relaxed with Master Sensei being a considerate and entertaining host. She didn't have a lot of expectations, the table was low enough that everyone sat on cushions and each dish had its own plate, but she didn't notice any special ceremony. Ron looked a little confused and Katsumi seemed to be out of her comfort zone. Hirotaka was how she remembered him in Middleton, cool and going with the flow.

"Katsumi-kun, you seem to be a little distressed, is something the matter?" their host asked.

"No, Sensei, everything is wonderful," the young Ninja remembered that the senior instructors taught their students to tell the full truth, so she continued, "It's just that I was expecting a more formal dinner. Not that this is bad, it's that I don't want to mess up by doing something wrong."

"Ah, I see. Consider this part of your training in preparation for your trip to America. I believe that dining is much more informal there."

Looking at the Americans, he smiled and continued, "This dinner is to formally welcome Raven Mara née Kim Possible and Ronald Stoppable to Yamanouchi and to make them an offer of a scholarship. Perhaps they may wonder why we spirited them away from their home and family?"

"I assumed that it had something to do with the fact that people were hunting for Kim?" suggested Ron, "since I and my family are moving here anyway, what's one more person to bring along?"

"The Mystical Monkey Power is a thread that ties several people together. Ronald, you are bound to Hana with ties stronger than blood. Yori has reported that Hana seems convinced that Kimberly or Raven is important to you in ways other than as an object of affection. I believe that it is in Yamanouchi's best interest to guide and nurture the Chosen One and his connections as much as we do to the other children in our family. We are sending Katsumi-kun to America to assist another connection and prevent him from being isolated. That connection is, of course, Wade Load."

"I formally invite you and Raven to finish High School here and start undergraduate school. We are an extension campus for select students of the University of California at Berkley. Your undergraduate degree would come from there."

"Master Sensei, what would be the price that I would have to repay? I mean in the great scheme of things, I don't think that just being Ron's girlfriend is very much."

Their host silenced Ron's outburst with a glance and replied, "Being Raven Mara or Kim Possible is more significant than you give yourself credit for. You have been a hero in the past, I expect that you will be the same in the future."

"But I don't think I can kill again. I'm not sure I can even fight again if I might have to kill someone."

"Many Ninja spend their entire life without killing another person. A great warrior hero once said "We have a saying, my people. " **Don't kill if you can wound** , **don't wound if you can** subdue, **don't** subdue if you can pacify, and **don't** raise your hand at all until you've first extended it." Child, you have a great heart and I am confident that your heart is the heart of a hero," Again, the Ninja Master held Ron silent with a look.

"I have not heard that before. Was it the warrior Toshimiru?" asked Katsumi.

"It was Wonder Woman in the issues written by Gail Simon," the headmaster said, "The point is that wisdom can come from many sources. Raven, you are not a Ninja, perhaps a bit of the wisdom of an imaginary tribe of Amazon warriors could be appropriate in building your personal ethos. Katsumi, you are a Ninja sworn to serve and protect your people, yet perhaps knowledge of a different system of ethics would be in order."

"We need not decide anything tonight. Tomorrow you will have an opportunity to examine our curriculum and take some placement tests. We shall plan to meet the day after tomorrow and talk about your options. Raven, your mother should be here by then and she will surely have advice. Acceptable?"

Raven nodded thinking that now was not the time to mention dreams of Ron dying trying to protect Japan. Perhaps the price to stay here and either fight or die at his side would be something she could afford.

Smiling and becoming the pleasant host instead of the school administrator, Master Sensei continued,

"Now, is everyone ready for dessert? Yori says that Hana is very fond of an ice cream called Rocky Road. Tonight, we will honor Hana-chan with ice cream. Katsumi-kun, if you and Hiro-kun would go and fetch it from the kitchen, please."

"Master Sensei," Ron finally felt free to talk, "Wonder Woman? Really?"

"Of course, Stoppable-kun, we are not isolated barbarians who only have Manga, we also have access to American comics," the headmaster laughed.

The dinner finished with Katsumi and Hirotaka talking about all the odd flavors of ice cream found in Japan, such as Squid Ink, Curry, and Shrimp.

STD 2018-

The American teens walked to their rooms, in late spring, the nights in the mountain grew cool. Ron walked with his arm around Raven supposedly for warmth, but she was watching for another fall. Dressed in her yukata, she felt like a Ninja princess as the couple walked by the central courtyard. 'The black ankle boots probably wouldn't work for anyone except a Goth Ninja Princess,' she laughed to herself

Sensei Tōgai wanted to see them first thing in the morning, he didn't say why, but they figured to look at Ron's brain some more. Or it could just be a school checkup of some sort.

Stopping at Raven's door, they hugged goodnight and then she put her hand on his cheek to pull him close for a kiss. Once again, she had the vision of Eric's face when she closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his. She had steeled herself not to flinch and lost herself in the warmth of his lips.

After the kiss, a very nice kiss as she judged them, he pulled back and looked into her eyes. He saw warmth and affection. Looking back into his eyes, she saw failure and hurt.

"Ronnie... I..." tears made her eyes glisten.

"Goodnight Raven," the blond let her go and went into his room, closing the door behind him.

STD 2018-

Kamiko Kiyomizu, licensed Physician's Assistant, main assistant to Sensei Tōgai Noishi, and one of the main healers of injuries on young Ninja, gently placed the I.V. into the young Goth's left arm.

'This girl's supposed to be a Goth? Don't make me laugh! A Goth is supposed to welcome piercings, yet she flinches at a medical needle. Not to mention that the girl selected a mix of Lindsey Stirling, Halestorm, and Miracle of Sound to listen to while the machine is running. That's not what anyone would call Goth Rock...'

Her patient was laying on a platform with headphones that worked by transmitting sound through plastic tubing allowing it to be made without metal. That was important because she was about to have her head inserted into a hole just big enough to fit it. This MRI was reported to have the smallest bore of any MRI still working in the world. The small-bore was important because it could give incredible resolution. The detail of pictures it would produce would be the difference between a laser printer and crayons.

Raven felt the assistant tuck a light blanket all around her. Because of all the electronic equipment the room was kept cold. Especially if all you had on was a cotton tee and sweatpants. 'It's my own fault,' she thought to herself, 'I had to go and mention that Ron seems to guess images I am thinking of in an office where the doctor is hot to look for any mystical phenomenon.'

Kamiko had been doing a general checkup of the Goth girl and had commented that 'someone looks like she didn't sleep well'.

The next thing that Raven knew, she was telling the "older sister" assistant all about her problems with flashbacks of 'another guy' when kissing Ron and how that upset him. That he somehow was seeing her flashbacks. Her boyfriend hadn't spoken more than a dozen words to her this morning and both teens looked worse for the wear.

"Ready Mara-san?", the assistant looked into the pale face seeing tired eyes and an expectation of boredom.

Unable to move her head, the patient's right hand came up and flashed the OK sign; the ring made using three fingers gesture.

The assistance slid the platform into place and walked out of the room. As part of her duties as the 'older sister', she needed to go have a few words with a certain blond.

'Pretty crappy sound quality, but it does help with the noise,' Raven lay still with her head effectively in a wastepaper basket with gnomes hammering on the outside.

 **If I break the glass, then I'll have to fly**

 **There's no one to catch me if I take a dive**

'I've got Ron to catch me, that's what he's always done for me. For that, along with many other reasons, **I choose to love Ron**. So why the flashbacks of Eric when Ron is close? Is my brain trying to tell me that I still **feel** love for Eric? How can that be true? He was a machine that was programmed to abuse and humiliate me. What could I possibly see in that monster?'

 **We could just go home right now**

 **Or maybe we could stick around**

 **For just one more drink, oh yeah**

Letting the next song drown out the hammering gnomes, she imagined herself as the singer and Ron as the other part of 'we'. The singer was talking about going home, alone. Or sticking around for another drink or three while she and her 'ex' talked about successes and failures, including their breakup. 'Not going to happen. I choose to love him and he swore together forever,' she told herself, listening to the songs and waiting for this to be over. But in the back of her mind, a small voice whispered, 'Aren't you selling yourself short by **deciding** that you will love him without the excitement of **feeling** the love? Is that fair to him?'

"OK Mara-san, I am injecting the contrast chemical and doing the second pass now." The music cut out while Sensei Tōgai spoke.

Raven felt a stinging cold spread up her arm and focused on the music...

 **Amnesia**

 **You've got this burden to bear now**

 **Hiding away from the world**

 **But deep down behind that disguise that you wear now**

 **I see a lost little girl**

 **So trust a little science, don't you be afraid**

 **Just a little time gonna make it fade**

 **Your heart is gonna shine**

 **And you're gonna make us proud**

She was just starting to ponder on whether she fit the description of that lost little girl in the song when the music paused again and Sensei Tōgai spoke,

'Mara-san, you are thinking too hard. Please try to silence your mind.'

'Whoa,' she thought, 'he's seeing brain activity?' She did her best to quiet her mind and just let the music and lyrics flow past her without thinking about them. Within a minute, she was asleep.

STD 2018-

Not having a snake to get them moved to the front of the lines, the two first class travelers and the two Tweebs from steerage were walking down the sidewalk about an hour after the plane touched down. With Wanda guiding their packing, no one had checked baggage which made one less thing for them to wait on. Approaching the handsome young man with his hair combed into spikes, Anne took a cleansing breath and centered herself. She had not used this technique in a while and she was unsure what defensive techniques her opponent had been trained in. Defeat was always an option, but in this case, it wouldn't be pretty. Jim and Tim had used electronic sleep inducers on the long flight and as a result, were bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and jet lag free.

"Mrs. Dr. Possible-sensei," he said, bowing respectfully, "I am Hirotaka, I have been sent to take you to Yamanouchi."

"Please," the redhead replied, "call me Anne-sensei, The other has too many words in it and in my culture seems a little pompous. About the ride to Yamanouchi, I was hoping you might take my sons, Jim and Tim, on a visit to Akihabara and assist them with some purchases and show them around."

"Anne-sensei, I regret that..."

"You **have** been there before, yes?"

"Of course, I am quite familiar with the area and know the best shops and the disreputable ones to, uh, steer young men away from. Perhaps later, but now..."

"Please Hiro-kun? It would really make this trip one for them to remember the rest of their lives. Please?"

Wanda was standing off to the side and only caught a small part of the surgeon's assault on her teammate. It was incredible. She saw Anne subtly tilt her head to the side, widen her eyes and push out her lower lip, which trembled a little. Even the small part of the wave of psychological force that Wanda caught nearly buckled her knees.

Hirotaka folded like a house of cards in a hurricane,

"Of course, Sensei, it will be my pleasure and my honor..."

"Thank you very much, dear. Take the van, it will be handy for hauling purchases. Wanda assures me that she knows the way to the school."

Waving at her sons as the van pulled away, she turned to ask Wanda about their transportation only to find the Ninja kneeling in supplication before her.

"Sensei, please teach me that technique! I will give you anything that does not interfere with my responsibility to Yamanouchi."

The redhead laughed, "The PDP is a fell power, young Ninja. Not all can master it and its effectiveness lessens with repeated use. If you swear a mighty oath to not use it too evilly, I will attempt to teach you."

Laughing and shouldering their backpacks, they walked to the rental car area where Wanda used a key card to gain access to a private office.

Walking to a counter staffed by an older brunette, Wanda called out,

"Obachan! It's been too long!"

"Don't 'Obachan' me, you little Ninja reprobate! It has been too long, I've been right here, where have you and that Suzie friend of yours been? I hear that you got rid of that boyfriend of yours, I always said he was no good. So, what can this old gaijin do for you?"

"Gaijin!" Wanda put her hand to her heart, "Obachan, you are as dear to me as my own grandmother!"

The brunette with streaks of gray now visible, stepped around the counter and hugged Wanda. Looking at Anne, she held out her hand,

"I'm Sherry Rice, consider me an equipment specialist. Has Wanda described the rides we can set you up with?"

"Anne Possible, pleased to meet you. No, I figured some sort of small car..."

Wanda looked like a kid on Christmas morning, "Sherry-sama, did they come in?"

"Yes, they did sweetie, I have a two shiny new black Honda NM4 Vultus bikes, ready for Team Cobra's use."

Wanda squealed a little. One of the deadliest, most capable Ninjas from Yamanouchi, living or dead, actually squealed a little bit.

"So, Anne," asked the 'clerk', "How are your motorcycle skills?"

"Twenty years out of date?"

"Let's go look at the bikes, the Honda NM4 Vultus has an automatic transmission, think of it as a scooter with a 745cc engine..."

STD 2018-

Anne took another loop around the cargo loading and storage area she was using for practice. There was an access road, long, straight and paved for her to get some speed up. Wanda cruised by her side, talking over the bike-to-bike radio system connected to their helmets,

"Anne-sensei, you need to remember, there is no right on red anywhere in Japan, you stop at all railroad tracks. Japanese drivers are usually very polite, but they will go through a red light for a few seconds after it has turned. If you want to thank someone for letting you in, turn on your flashers for a few seconds."

This was pretty exciting for an almost forty-year-old mother of three and a surgeon. The 'bikes' were full-blown motorcycles that looked straight out of a science fiction movie. Her sons would definitely approve.

"And I have to remember to drive on the left. I don't know Wanda, it seems like a risky way to get there..."

"Onee-sama, cut loose and try something new! You only have to follow me. I swear that I will lead us as if I wanted us both to live forever. I know an inn that's a short ride from here. We can take an easy ride there, no highways. A nice soak in their spa, a good night's sleep, then another easy ride to Yamanouchi."

"I don't know..."

"Team Cobra gets two bikes. I usually ride behind Suzie, Yori rides behind Hirotaka. If you take the other bike, then it will be waiting for him when he gets back with your sons. It would be a very nice way to say, 'Thank you' for dealing with them."

"Tim and Jim?" their mom said with a straight face, "My sons are good boys, they never get into mischief..." and then burst out laughing, "OK, you win, I'll drive it back for him."

"Yatta! Let's go back and tell Sherry-san, she should have your license ready by now."

STD 2018-

Hirotaka paid for his purchases. He was a closet fan of the "Cells at Work!" manga and picked up the latest issue. He figured that an emergency would prevent Red Blood Cell and White Blood Cell from confessing their love as usual, but a guy could hope, right? He had spent over an hour browsing and picked up some manga that others back at school would appreciate. Time to meet up with the twins and see how their shopping was going. Pulling out a small smartphone-sized device, his heart nearly stopped when he called up the map and located the twins. The map showed them in **M's** , one of the largest sex shops in Akihabara.

He grimaced, thinking that he hadn't been given any instructions for where the boys were allowed to go. He wasn't sure, his recollections of his agreeing to bring them here were hazy. But at any rate, he did not want the red-haired sensei angry with him, one didn't become a senior Ninja by pissing off a sensei.

Expanding the map into a three-dimensional view of the building, he saw that they weren't in the main part of the store, but in a meeting room in the basement. Stuffing his purchases into his backpack, he hurried off after his charges.

STD 2018-

Anne smiled at the young pink-haired biker sitting across from her at the noodle shop where they had stopped for a late lunch. She had to be careful not to eat too much and get sleepy, but the noodles, served cold with various dipping sauces, were very good. She and Wanda had gotten through Tokyo and onto more rural looking roads without incident. Anne had been surprised when they were riding down a lovely road and suddenly surrounded by garishly modified motorcycles decorated with lots of pink designs. Later she would realize that Wanda had moved from leading her to riding protectively beside her just before the bikers arrived.

"Anne-sensei," Wanda explained using their bike-to-bike intercom, "these are Bosozoku, a motorcycle gang sub-culture. They take pride in being rebels. We will pull into this noodle shop ahead on the left. I don't expect a fight, but if there is one, I don't want to get these bikes scratched up." The Ninja pulled back in the lead and soon pulled into a small noodle shop.

The surgeon's Japanese was pretty weak, she might have been able to stumble through a surgery discussion, but the young woman across from her wanted to talk motorcycle stuff and Anne's Japanese vocabulary was not up to the task. Fortunately, Wanda was sitting next to her and was able to both eat and carry on the engine displacement, automatic dual clutch transmissions and all the other details that the half-dozen Bosozoku girls wanted to talk about.

STD 2018-

Anne was still in a thoughtful mood when they arrived at the inn. The encounter with the Bosozoku girls had her thinking about the life she had chosen. Certainly, she did not envy the rebel girls, they lacked direction and more importantly, they lacked strong connections to other people. She checked off her connections; James, that one seemed weak lately, but she would strengthen that one; Kimmy, she would move out one day, given recent events it appeared that day would be sooner than she expected; Jim and Tim, she still had several years of them underfoot. Doing some quick math, she figured that she would be an empty nester before she was fifty. Then what? Concentrate on her work as a surgeon and mentor? Travel would be nice, she envied Wanda who seemed to travel all over the world taking care of Yamanouchi business.

The pair checked into the inn. Having an hour before dinner was available, the two dropped their backpacks, helmets and body armor in the room and found their way to the baths where they soaked and talked of inconsequential matters surrounded by a beautiful garden.

STD 2018-

Erica's four threads of software execution dedicated to digging through her deleted memory areas had hit pay dirt. One found a collection of environmental sample data collected by the synthodrone Eric including data on scents of people. She had a slow data connection to her body and was able to program sections of the skin to emit a blend of Anne's scent along with a little of Kimmy's. A long-term pressure test for her body was planned tonight. That would activate her skin, plus ensure that James would be close by. Her Internet research calculated an eighty-seven percent chance that the subliminal scent of his loved ones would relax the scientist enough to get some real sleep. In the meantime, those four threads of execution searched for more information...

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

The three songs mentioned are

'Shatter Me', by Lindsey Stirling with Lzzy Hale. (Not misspelled, there is no 'i' in her first name) Amazing YouTube video, look it up.

'Here's to Us', by Halestorm. I claim that this is a defiantly proud, but sad song

'Amnesia' by Miracle of Sound. Written for a friend suffering from depression, if I remember correctly.

While you are on YouTube watching the videos from these three excellent artists, try searching for (metal cover by Leo Moracchioli) I'm not a big fan of metal, but this guy is good, has a bazillion covers, and the guy just looks like he is having so much fun making music.

Suzie Chin (Subira Chen) and her partner in Ninja-hood Wanda Wang are all from Sentinel103 and his " **Once Again"** stories.

 **Authors Note:** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and sanity checkers. Believe me, I need a lot of sanity checks. Actually, a Raven/Ron scene was working out so that got moved to the next chapter.

I won't be publishing once a week as I have been trying to do. The combination of my daughter not starting her new job for a couple of weeks with the release of Monster Hunter World on PC, the new Celebi thing on Pokemon Go, and the general desire to go a little deeper into these characters are going to slow me down.

M's is a real store.

Posted September 2nd, 2014


	11. Chapter 11

**STD 2018-**

Sensei Tōgai was convinced that Raven's flashbacks and especially Ron's ability to see them wasn't normal neurology but was caused by a psychic connection, perhaps even MMP based. He was eager to test that hypothesis by stuffing both teens into a large MRI machine and observing their brain activity while they kissed. Taking shameless advantage of the two teens' "respect medical authorities" reflex, he convinced them to drop by his radiology lab after their high school course placement interviews.

Ron stood awkwardly in the clinic's radiology lab. Dammit, he saw the warmth and affection in her eyes after the kiss last night, but the thought that she was seeing Eric and not him had nearly crushed him! Was it too much to expect that his girlfriend would want him for him and not as an apparently inadequate replacement for a bag of goo?

He had treated Raven like crap this morning. Not rude or impolite, but cool and impersonal. With some help from a scathing dressing down from Kamiko just now, he realized that maybe his KP was in there somewhere fighting some sort of PTSD, maybe she did want to love him, and just maybe he could be helping her instead of moping around like a scolded puppy.

'OK, no problem,' he thought, 'it's not like Mr. Dr. P is going to see these MRI pictures, right? OK, time to man up and be a boyfriend.' He reached his hand out a little and brushed her side.

'Stupid jerk,' Raven managed not to speak out loud, 'Idiot Ron.' She had been hurt last night by his belief that she was thinking of another guy during their goodnight kiss then slept poorly worrying about it. She had wanted to talk to him this morning, but his silence hurt more than if he yelled at her. 'Dammit! Does he really have that low an opinion of himself!? And where does he get off looking into my thoughts?!' She felt his hand brush her side. She started to smack it away, but instead reached out and grabbed it in an angry iron grip. The same iron grip that could hang on to a grapple while the other hand gripped Ron on a grapple-powered ascension up a cliff. She felt his reply with nearly as strong a grip, if for no other reason than to keep his hand from being crushed.

"Stoppable-kun get on the table and lie down on your back. Mara-kun, crawl up on the table and stretch out on top of him." Sensei Tōgai's tone of voice brooked no argument. Ron pretty much ignored that attitude,

"Sensei, I don't know if this is really appropriate..."

"Get that blond butt up there Ronnie. We gotta figure out where my flashbacks are coming from and why you are seeing them." Sensei Tōgai winced as Raven walked her boyfriend over to the table. He was, after all, an expert on joint locks and the wrist lock that the oh so sweet sounding Goth had on the blond was at most a sneeze away from breaking his wrist.

"Yes, I want to check this phenomenon before it corrects itself. It could contain clues to the very nature of the MMP. Mara-chan," the physician switched to a soothing tone, "Please carefully stretch out on top of your boyfriend."

The Goth climbed on top of her boyfriend using a pressure point jab to get him to move his legs apart to allow her to crawl between them and was immediately pressed down by Kamiko. After measuring the height of the stack of bodies against the opening, the assistant placed headsets on both teens. Slowly the table slid into the MRI, pausing only once when she gently pressed Raven's face closer to Ron's so the Goth's head wouldn't bonk against the edge of the opening. Soon only their feet stuck out of the electronic monster's maw.

Ron thought that this was almost like a fantasy, the MRI was sort of like an air duct. There was even a fan blowing air down the tube to help with claustrophobia. He had once (OK, maybe twice) fantasized about making out with his red-haired hero while hiding in an air duct waiting for a tardy supervillain.

But in his fantasies, she wasn't crying.

"Raven, I'm sorry."

"Jerk. Idiot. You promised forever."

"I meant forever, it's just that I'm afraid..."

"Afraid of what?"

Sensei Tōgai's voice came over their headsets, "Don't start anything yet, I want a baseline."

The MRI gnomes started up with their little gnome MRI jackhammers.

"Afraid of being replaced," Ron said loudly to be heard over the racket.

"Afraid of not being good enough," he said more softly.

Raven put both hands on his face and made sure he could see her lips.

"Believe in me and my promise to always be by your side," she mouthed carefully so he could read her lips.

The Sensei's voice came over their headsets, "Please remain calm and still for one minute while I get a baseline."

"Right, remain calm and still, he says," Ron groused, trying to change the subject, "Well, I bet Tōgai's never been stuffed in a tube with a hot babe laying on top of him..."

"You would lose that bet, Stoppable-kun. I have done many things to advance science. Many of them I have never regretted." Sensei Tōgai's laughing voice was heard on both headsets, "The baseline is complete. Now commence kissing."

Kamiko, sitting on a stool in the monitoring room, stared at the physician. "They've never called you the love-sensei, have they?"

"No, I've suggested it several times, but I am ignored," was the deadpan reply.

Kamiko switched the mic to Ron's headset only, "Listen Ron-chan, you keep making Raven cry and I'll come out there and stick an I.V. in your butt. Speaking of butts, your arms can probably reach her butt. Consider this, she has crushed on other boys in the past, she may look twice at a handsome face, but it is you she wants to arouse her, to please her, so Ganbatte!"

Flipping the switch to Raven-only, she said, "Raven-kun, you have him right there, he can't run away. You claim to love him, kiss him! Do you not want him to experience sexual tension and pleasure? Why shouldn't it be you who provides it for him? Ganbatte!"

The Assistant watched her patients on the low-res, real-time monitor. The ghostly, transparent couple started out with some perfunctory kissing, but soon the pair relaxed into the moment. She thought she saw Ron react to something occasionally, but Raven held his head in her hands and waited for the reaction to pass before resuming her assault on his lips. Ron's hands could indeed reach a thinly covered butt and he took full advantage of that.

Raven wasn't exactly a control freak, but she did like to drive. In this sitch, Ron's arms were constrained by their bodies and the tube so he couldn't raise them higher than their waists. She conversely, had her arms trapped in the other direction, but she liked that as it let her use her hands to touch his face and hair. Early on in the experiment, she experienced vivid flashbacks that he reacted to. But she was driving and simply paused for a moment, then took his face in her hands and restarted the kissing. The restriction of movement was frustrating, she had squirmed up a little so he could reach her neck with his lips. That had the side effect that something was poking her when she squirmed back down. 'Dammit, what does he have in his pocket... Wait, neither of us has pockets... Oh... Perhaps my Ronnie is a little tense...'

"Ron," she said loudly to be heard over the racket, "I'm going to try to raise up to let you adjust your, uh, thing."

She managed to press her butt against the top of the tube to make enough of a gap between them for him to slip his hand between them to move the problem part so that it lay flat between their bodies.

Raven decided to change her makeout-in-an-air-shaft fantasy to have them already naked and oil covered. She really, really wanted to squirm more on her boyfriend but was afraid that right now, it would just give one of his favorite parts a rug-burn. She would never admit it to the young ninja, but Katsumi was correct about it getting larger. Getting back to the makeout session, she briefly wondered why she wasn't dying of embarrassment. 'Must be because this sitch is so surreal,' she thought to herself.

After another five minutes, Sensei Tōgai picked up the mic and flipped the switch to both, "Final scan is complete, you may relax, or we can turn off the lights and leave for the rest of the day, your choice."

Rolling her eyes as she picked up some towels and the two bags containing their clothes, Kamiko walked up to the MRI and pressed the 'eject' button. As the table smoothly rolled out of the machine, she laid the towels and bags on the foot of the table,

"Get dressed, I'm pretty sure that you both are done for the day. You're on your own for dinner."

"Ronnie, let's go find a quiet place to eat and talk, just the two of us, OK?" the goth stripped off her tee shirt, tossed it in a hamper and started toweling off sweat.

"Sure, Raven," the blond was doing his best not to stare at the naked goth while he toweled off and changed, "Let go back to the dorm, the little kitchen is stocked with basics, rice, pasta, eggs, canned stuff. I'll make us some dinner and we can talk there."

The sun had set but the moon shone in a clear sky as they walked back to their dorm. The trees, the mountains. the courtyard and architecture made their walk almost seem like another time, it was definitely another place than Middleton.

"Ron, wait here!" Raven spotted smoke coming from a window of their dorm and then swore under her breath as Ron raced hot on her heels following her as she ran into the building and up the stairs...

"I told her the heat was too hot," Nyx gestured to Elsa who was scraping charred remains out of a skillet and into the trash. A table fan was helping to blow the remaining smoke out the window of the little kitchen

"Nyx, Elsa, this is my boyfriend and mission partner Ron Stoppable; Ron, this is Nyx and Elsa, I met them in the baths yesterday. Do you both live in this dorm?"

"Yes, on this floor in fact," answered Nyx, the 'True Goth', "Non-Japanese students tend to start out here before being given the choice to move to a more traditional housing and some senior Japanese students come here to try European housing before doing advanced studies overseas."

"We got back late from an assignment and I was trying to make us some dinner, but apparently I wasn't paying enough attention," the stocky blonde Elsa admitted.

"You are in luck," Raven pointed out, "Did I mention that Ronnie here is a master cook?"

Ron found himself the center of hungry attention. "What do I have to work with?"

"Shrimp, eggs, lunch meats, bacon, butter, several kinds of cheese..." Raven reported from the refrigerator.

"Fresh garlic, canned tuna, rice, flour, dried pasta and all kinds of dried herbs..." Nyx was checking a pantry.

"I'm feeling like a shrimp, bacon, and pasta carbonara main dish. Not enough time for real bread, how about some cheesy garlic biscuits?" Ron was warming up to the task.

Ron made extra and the smell of frying bacon and garlic attracted two more students on their floor and Katsumi mysteriously appeared with ice cream for dessert. It was a lovely dinner with pleasant company but left no time for the quiet talk the two Americans had originally planned...

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Yori turned off her cellphone as their plane backed away from the terminal. It turned out that Mr. And Mrs. Stoppable had enough frequent flier miles to upgrade everyone to business class. She and Hanna were seatmates with Jean and Gene across the aisle. Hanna was on her best behavior so she could sit in the 'grownup section' even though she was sitting in a car seat, both for safety and boost her up so she could see out the window. Yori was not looking forward to the flight, on the flight from Japan, it was all she could do to keep Hana from dancing on the wing. This time she had an ace in the hole, a necklace from Jim and Tim that they promised would help the little girl sleep nearly the whole trip. The downside was having a fully rested and recharged Hana when they landed.

Being business class they were served orange juice, no alcohol for her, she was 'on duty', Hana got hers in a sippy cup and the Stoppables got theirs mixed with champagne (Mimosa). Rufus was required to be in a pet carrier stuffed in the overhead storage, but Yori, using a little sleight of hand, transferred him to a hidden nest in the base of Hana's car seat. Jean had passed a little of her Mimosa over for the little guy and Yori thought she heard tiny snores. Leaning across the aisle, she told Jean Stoppable,

"Jean-san, I have exchanged text messages with Anne and Wanda. They are spending the night at an inn and then taking a leisurely drive up to the school. Since we are going straight there, we should arrive shortly after they do. Are you sure you don't want me to send a message to Ron-san and tell him to expect us?"

"Oh no, dear. It will be more fun to surprise him..."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

James wondered at what point was he supposed to raise his hands to the heavens and shout, 'It's Alive!'

"Trust me, that's not as cool as it sounds. I did that and Shego just laughed at me," the seemingly ever-present voice pointed out.

Erica was no longer a naked skull sitting on a workbench, but was now fully assembled into a body and was in the process of powering up.

He had installed a glass fiber reinforced spinal column and mounted the skull. The body wasn't the nearly pure circulating syntho-goop internals that Drakken used in his design, the spinal column provided faster communications to various systems internal to her body.

He had installed her skull and the skin covering it with underlying musculature but no initial hair. That skin, like all the skin covering her body, had fiber generation factories incorporated into its cell structure. This allowed her to grow hair anywhere on her body to whatever length she desired in a matter of hours instead of weeks. The color was selectable and should Erica issue the proper internal commands, she could become a Wookie in a day or sport a rainbow Mohawk in an hour.

James ran a pressure test overnight on her body loaded with water instead of syntho-goop at ten times the normal pressure and except for one small section of a seam that he had to redo, everything looked good.

More critical to his immediate survival was that he had managed to get some sleep during the pressure test. Something about being near the synthodrone body while starting the test soothed him enough to sleep. Now, this morning after a few hours of sleep, a shower, soup and orange juice, the hallucinations seemed to be easier to ignore and his mind seemed a little clearer.

He had an inspiration while drinking his OJ. Because of the differences that he had introduced in Drakken's original design, the syntho-goop formula could be adjusted to make it a syntho-gel. A syntho-gel together with an embittering agent that should make Erica less vulnerable to punctures and taste bad to giant roaches.

The engineer whose own hair was graying at his temples took an electric blanket and tucked it gently and tenderly around the naked synthodrone.

"Don't you appreciate the female form?" snarked a vague greenish shape, "or do you just want a hot bod to cuddle with?"

"Shego, the heat will help the nanites in the syntho-gel activate and create their internal networks. The only hot body I want to cuddle with is on the other side of the planet."

"Well Doc P, the song says, 'Love the one you're with'."

The chime from his classified video conference screen interrupted James' banter with his ghostly kibitzers. Walking over in front of the screen, he did a quick check to make sure that he was the only one that could be seen by his camera. Pressing the answer button he saw the big screen split into nine squares with senior NASA scientists, Department of Defense representatives and congressional staffers responsible for funding logging into the virtual meeting.

"Gentlemen, I want to start this meeting by reporting that the prototype FTL probe model is ahead of schedule and under budget. In fact, it is ready for Milestone Number Six: Initial Demonstration to Stakeholders."

"What? This was a boondoggle, a waste of taxpayer money; surely you don't claim that the prototype works?" one of the staffers was clearly expecting James to ask for more money and time.

"Is the demo really ready? Wait! Does that mean the probe has already made a proof of concept flight?" The NASA scientist was practically vibrating with excitement.

"Yes, it has. Ladies and Gentlemen, I am ready to demonstrate it right now. The engineers at the Joint Propulsion Labs have it on a test launch pad. The moon is directly overhead. The prototype is carrying a twenty-five-pound flash bomb made of magnesium powder with an oxidizer and an unknown metallic salt added by an engineering professor from Southern Cal. The probe will ignite the flare immediately on arrival at the moon. The test will be to start a stopwatch timer running when they launch the probe and compare it to the time of arrival of the flash. The metallic salt will give the flare a color that can be used to spectrally verify that it is the flare we put on the probe."

A simple graphic appeared on all the screens showing the test setup. James continued,

"If the probe can indeed travel faster than light, or radio waves, then the time from launch to the observation of the flash will be less than the round-trip time for light. The round-trip time of light to the moon and back is two point six seconds. I expect the flash to arrive about 1.8 seconds after it leaves the Earth. For this to happen, the probe has to travel faster than light to get to the moon in time to light the flare. The probe has laser retroreflectors that will be used to show that the prototype is indeed on the moon and didn't stop short."

The experiment wasn't much to look at. The prototype sat on a pad for a couple of minutes then vanished. The video windows with the NASA and JPL were quiet for about 30 seconds then people in the remote JPL rooms were cheering.

"One point six seconds James! The spectra of the flash confirm it was from the probe, laser range finding shows that the probe is at the correct distance to be on the moon!" cheered the JPL engineer.

"Well, gentlemen, I have other things to attend to, so if you will excuse me," the graying engineer closed his connection, stunning the rest of the people on the conference call. Dr. James Possible just demonstrated the most important piece of technology in the last 100 years, the technology that could get mankind to the stars and he 'had other things to do!?'

"Get that prototype under lock and key, maybe the people at Nellis Air Force Base's Dreamland should take charge of it. This is too important a technology to have just lying around JPL," demanded an Air Force General from the Department of Defense window.

"Sir, we don't know how to get it back from the moon," one of the JPL engineers started to explain, "We're not sure how it lifted off in the first place, we examined it but there weren't any thrusters that we could see. The only command provided on the control channel that Dr. Possible gave us access to was the command to launch."

The Air Force General pounded his desk, "Outrageous! Get Dr. Possible back on the line!"

A voice in the back could be heard to say, "Sorry General, but he isn't on the network and there are no outside phone lines in his secure lab."

"Call the Security Forces and have them go get his ass to a phone!"

The background voice was heard to say, "But General, Middleton Space Center isn't Air Force, we don't have any Security Forces stationed in the area..."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Raven stumbled out of the shower, walking to a sink and mirror. Supposedly it was safe to wash her hair now that the dye had sufficient time to set, but she was in a hurry, Nyx and Elsa had woken her up for a class that someone apparently forgot to tell her about. Skipping all of her makeup except for sunscreen, she then did a quick brush and braid of her hair. Putting her stuff back in her shower kit, she noticed Katsumi loitering around.

"Let me guess, waiting to hear someone fall in the shower?" Raven shouldn't have snarked, but it was too damned early and she really wanted coffee.

The younger girl shrugged, unperturbed, "Sensei Tōgai asked me to fetch Stoppable-san before he goes to today's MMP training." Pulling out what looked like a stainless steel drink bottle out of her bag, she handed it over saying, "Kamiko-san asked me to give this to you."

Taking the bottle, Raven saw that it was a vacuum bottle made to keep drinks hot or cold. Unscrewing the cap, she smelled coffee. Real, honest to goodness coffee. Bowing low to the younger student, she said, "Thank you Katsumi-sama, you have saved my life this morning. Please give Kamiko-sensei my humble thanks."

Tucking the bottle into an inner pocket on her uniform jacket, she shouted, "Bye Ron, See you after class!" and heard mumbling in reply.

She was about to run out the door when she heard Katsumi say something about how maybe she should have brought two coffees. Screeching to a halt, she told the kind but clueless young Ninja, "No! Never, ever give Ronnie strong caffeinated drinks, particularly coffee first thing in the morning. Just trust me on that. Coming!" she called out to Nyx and ran out the door.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

James was well and truly screwed. And not the happy naked fun kind of screwed either. Splashing cold water in his face, he left the restroom and walked back to the lab, punching in the entrance code and slipping into the cool air. Erica was dressed in one of his spare dress shirts which barely came down to her mid-thigh. She had about an inch of new auburn hair on her head, somehow that made her seem even sexier. She did look like a younger Anne, pretty but missing some quality that his Anne had.

"Guess I'd better bring the prototype back in case someone wants another demonstration" he muttered absently, walking past the synthodrone to the control box on the assembly table and pressed the recall button.

"James, please go see a doctor, you're sick."

"Erica, I'll be fine, but what am I going to do?"

"Can you be more specific?"

"I mean with you. I guess I made you the girl of my dreams and not the girl of either Kimmie-cub's or Ronald's dreams. No, wait. That's not entirely true, I made you in the image of the young woman who will become the woman of my dreams. Still, I can't send you to try to seduce either of them. That would make me as evil as Drakken. Well, not take over the world evil, but messing with someone's emotions evil."

"That would be good. My Anne optimizations would probably reject that assignment anyway."

James looked around the lab. There was no sign of either the ex-supervillain or the glowing green ghostly generator of feminine snark.

"I'm sorry, my mind wandered there for a second. What did you say?"

The synthodrone stamped a pretty foot, "I said that the Anne rules of conduct you've loaded into me would prevent me from trying to seduce either Kimmy or Ronald."

James stared at her foot. Did Anne ever stamp her foot when she was frustrated? Maybe when they were first new?

"James, are you listening to me?!"

"I've modeled you after the smartest, kindest, most loving, **the** most attractive woman on the planet. There's no way **That Ronald** ," the blond boy's name came out in a growl, "will ever be allowed to **touch you**."

The scientist stopped and rubbed his temples and tried to get a grip on his emotions. "What have I been thinking? I'm such a bad mad scientist! Uh, do you think Neil would like his boots back?" James picked up a pair of space suit boots that he had retrieved off the moon in the first test of the prototype.

"I'm sure he'd be pleased that you have them, honey. And you're not a bad mad-scientist, you're a good, good-scientist," Erica walked over to James and hugged him so tightly that he tried to make a mental note to check the calibration on her force-feedback sensors. Tried to, but it was just so hot in the room. He was just so hot, so tired...

"James? James! Honey, don't leave us! We love you, honey, stay with us..."

As she carried his limp body to the couch, a search result arrived from the second of the four threads of execution searching for old Eric data files in her memory. Scanning the file, she saw that Drakken planned to attack James for revenge as part of using Eric as a distraction. Raising up the prone scientist's right arm, she looked at the palm of his hand. There was a lump as if a splinter was stuck under the skin.

There was a thud from the test chamber as the prototype arrived, dropping to the padded floor. She ignored the noise as not important.

The data file contained the instructions for Eric to inject a small hollow needle into James's hand while shaking the man's hand in an introduction. The chemically coated needle would immediately numb the skin to avoid detection. This needle was a miniaturized nanite factory that would produce artificial viruses designed to attack the victim's brain, increasing paranoia and destroying creative functions.

Reassigning all her non-critical threads of execution to work on solving this problem, the data returned by her search routines indicated that she needed to remove this object as soon as possible. The fever showed that James's body was fighting the infection, so removing the source of new copies of the virus should help. Scanning the room, she spotted the laser cutter. The cutter that James had used to cut hardened stainless steel for the prototype. Not as delicate a tool as Anne's laser scalpel, but it would have to do.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Master Sensei stood on a rise to watch students coming back from the run that ended this day's session of the Dragon Course. The course picked for today ended with the runners crossing the rickety looking rope bridge across the gorge. That was an illusion, of course, should General Hannibal himself show up with his war elephants, the bridge would easily support them. Two strange looking motorcycles pulled up near the other side of the gorge and parked.

'That must be Wanda and Anne-sensei,' He had received an alert from one of the sentry posts earlier that the pair had been identified and allowed to pass. The riders wore body armor made to reduce injuries in the event of a crash. The headmaster chuckled to himself that this must be at the prodding of the senior surgeon because Wanda, well, there was this rumor concerning Wanda and Suzie racing through villages riding naked except for helmets that had never been proven. To the best of his knowledge, his senior student usually wore a simple leather jacket and denim jeans when riding a motorcycle.

Watching the women take off their helmets and strip off their body armor made him appreciate the cataract surgery he had last year. At sixty-five, he was still young enough to enjoy the beauty in the world. Enjoy strictly from a distance as inappropriate relations between any Sensei and students or Junior staff were strictly forbidden. His musings were interrupted by Katsumi running up to him with a large tablet phone,

"Master Sensei! You have a video call from Alexander-sama!"

"Thank you, that will be all, Katsumi-kun." Pulling reading glasses out of his sleeve, he put them on, mentally running a quick calming exercise wondering why one of the heads of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest of the Yakuza organizations was calling him.

Pressing the accept button on the screen, he said,

"This is Master Sensei, how may I help you?"

"Kaemon-san, can't an old acquaintance just call to chat?" The face on the screen looked middle-aged and very Japanese, apparently using cover names in Yakuza leadership was popular these days, thus 'Alexander'.

"Alexander-san, I cannot think of anything my students could be doing now to interfere with your operations. If you are checking on the cherry blossoms, I fear that they are past their peak. Is there a disaster somewhere that students of the mountain may assist your soldiers with?"

"No, Actually I have a situation that has arisen and I want to ensure that we can extricate ourselves from it without bloodshed or ill feelings on either side."

In the background, a five-second roar/whoosh sound was heard, followed by a few people cheering and,

"Hicka Bicka Boo!" cheered a boy.

"Hoosha! 422 Newtons average thrust!" cheered the second boy.

"Because of a misunderstanding by one of my sub-lieutenants, we are now hosting two young American men and one of your Ninja. My man was monitoring the exchange of robotic technical information and thought the young men were CIA agents looking to uncover the illegal selling of technical information. When your Ninja appeared to retrieve them, my people took them as guests to one of our safe houses. All are unhurt, your Ninja was most determined to keep them safe and refrained from starting combat."

The headmaster almost felt sorry for the criminal organization, "I believe the two young men you have are Jim Possible and Tim Possible, the younger brothers of Kim Possible. Ms. Possible and her partner Ron Stoppable are visiting the mountain as a matter of fact."

The face on the video screen paled.

"May I inquire why you haven't returned my Ninja and his guests?"

"Kaemon-san, we want to assist the brothers in their dealing with the local robotics manufacturers."

"For a fee, I assume?"

"We will only charge them a very reasonable sixty percent commission."

"Fifteen percent sounds more reasonable."

"We are not a charity, but we could do forty percent with a ten percent kickback to the mountain."

"Twenty percent with their money channeled through offshore accounts. All required paperwork completed by your lawyers. No promise of exclusive rights for future products. No kickback to my mountain."

"Done. But we want the right of first refusal for future offerings."

"Agreed. When may I expect them to arrive at my mountain?"

"We want to entertain them for three more days, then we will make sure they arrive safe, sound, and loaded with souvenirs. We will fax over a contract this afternoon. Their mother can read and sign it for them."

Master Sensei closed the video window when the call ended. Looking at the tail end of the runners, he saw a running and leaping small child cutting through the pack with a grinning Yori in hot pursuit. He laughed at his good fortune to be alive at this time in history and to be associated with the Possibles and the Stoppables including their new daughter.

* * *

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

Suzie Chin (Subira Chen) and her partner in Ninja-hood Wanda Wang are all from Sentinel103 and his " **Once Again"** stories.

 **Authors Note:** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and sanity checkers. Believe me, I need a lot of sanity checks. This chapter had a good bit of emails going back and forth with ideas.

Posted September 8th, 2018


	12. Chapter 12

Ron and Raven had met up after their classes, enjoyed a quick afternoon snack of leftovers, and had just left the busy dorm to take a walk when they were intercepted by Katsumi.

"I was told that you two really need to talk. Follow me please," she said, "I know just the spot."

Ron's leg folded under him as he turned to follow and he would have fallen had Raven not grabbed his arm. Even so, both of them nearly hit the ground.

Raven helped him stand up. "What the hell? Are you OK?"

"I'm fine," he took two steps with her still hanging onto his arm, "See? Everything is working. Still the clumsy sidekick, I guess." Sporting a goofy grin, he continued, "So, Katsumi-san, where is this spot?"

"A somewhat secluded area in the mixed baths in the onsen," the Ninja's eyes looked carefully at the blond with a touch of concern in her eyes then at the other girl.

"The mixed baths?! That doesn't sound private!" Raven protested as she caught the glance by the kunoichi.

The young ninja replied serenely, "It is the slack part of the day for people bathing. After dinner, it would be busier. Plus, the rules of the onsen include 'you may look but not stare' and 'you may hear but not listen'. There is a place in the back where one of the springs splashes directly into the pool. If you go back there and you speak quietly, then that is about as private of a place as you will find anywhere at Yamanouchi."

"I thought I remembered Ninjas as some of the biggest gossips I have seen," the blond said.

"We are. That you and Raven went to the baths, sat in the spot famous for privately confessing feelings and had a heart to heart conversation will be widely known and talked about during dinner," Katsumi giggled behind her hand then continued, "Particularly speculation on what you were talking about. But do you really care? After all, it will help solidify the perception that you two are boyfriend/girlfriend."

"Nope, not at all, come on Ronnie, let's go beat the traffic," Raven held onto her boyfriend's arm while Katsumi grabbed a hand and started pulling him.

Arriving at the onsen, they went behind the black curtain and put their shoes in a locker. Going to the changing area, Katsumi pointed out that none of the lockers were in use, "See? The Kami are looking out for you. Right now, there is no one here. She pulled their shower kits out of a shoulder bag and started undressing.

"Wait one second, Kat-san," Raven objected, "Why are you coming?"

"I was going to show Ron-san how things work and maybe scrub his back..."

"I am pretty sure I can do that myself, please and thank you," the goth said.

The smile on Katsumi's face made both teens believe that she had been teasing them, then throwing herself at each one to give them a hug, she added, "I am leaving for the United States this evening, so I probably won't see you before I go. Please take care of each other."

Raven reminded her, "Remember that in America, proper young ladies do not help young gentlemen in the shower."

She bowed low to the Americans, "But Mara-san, I am a proper **Ninja,** not a lady," and ran giggling out of the room.

Raven showed Ron where to put his clothes, gave him one of the entirely too-small towels "to use for modesty", they undressed, and walked into the washing area. A quick scrub (done separately and far apart, to Ron's disappointment) and they moved to the pool chamber. The front three-quarters of the pool was part of the building and finished in tile with convenient rocks of various sizes and shapes scattered around to sit on and lean against. The back section of the pool was roughly carved into the mountain itself. Maybe a thousand years ago it was rough. Time, water and the contact with generations of Ninja had worn the rock smooth. Following the sound of gently splashing water, they found almost a nook, by no means hidden from view, but out of the way.

There the pair found an "S" shaped rock where they could sit close and face each other. Ron had Kim settle into the steaming water, cloudy with minerals, first. He turned away from her as she took the towel she carried in front of her for modesty, folded it up and placed it on her head before slowly easing down into the very hot water. Getting settled, she admired his butt for a few seconds before saying, "I'm in," before leaning back and closing her eyes.

Soon the pair were submerged with just their shoulders above the water, their backs leaning on the inside curves of the "S".

After a short silence, Ron started, "So, how was your morning? When I got out of the shower, you were already gone."

"Nyx and Elsa dragged me off to an early morning class. Way too early. Did you do the Dragon Course when you were here as an exchange student?"

"Yeah, I remember how rudely early it was. I fell asleep during meditation practice. And I never got the hang of the 'disappear in plain sight' thing. You should have seen Rufus, he could do it all. If ever there was a Ninja naked mole rat, it's him."

Raven giggled, "I fell asleep too. Nyx was impressed that I could sleep while sitting up in the Lotus position. I think the disappearing trick is based on residual mystical power from the temple, maybe leftover from Toshimiru himself. I might have gotten a teeny bit translucent!" She grinned, "So, how was your morning?

"Master Sensei started my training for controlling the MMP. Sensei Tōgai was worried that my brains would fall out the side of my head if I did too much running, so they had me swimming instead."

"I thought mom fixed the hole with bone grafts or something?"

"She did, but she told me not to get hit there for a couple of years. She put in some sort of fiber plate and seeded it with bone and it will take that long for the bone to grow solid. I think Tōgai worries that he will lose his favorite MRI subject. You know, for a place that has hot water on tap," Ron held up an arm showing the water vapor form from the cool breeze blowing across the hot water clinging to it, "You'd think they'd have a nice warm pool, but they had me swimming in a cold stream for nearly an hour."

"Without complaining?"

"Not a peep except the 'shriek of courage' when I jumped in," the blond grinned, "Kamiko was swimming beside me the whole time. Master Sensei said it was just as a safety precaution, but I think it was to shame me into not complaining."

"I'm impressed. What did you do after they thawed you out?"

"Master Sensei ran me through some Tai Chi exercises trying to help me work on my energy flow."

"Did it work?"

"Seemed to. At least I could feel heat flowing into my hands and feet, which was really nice. Turns out they have an MMP User's Guide, can you believe it? Of course, it's written in archaic Japanese and it's several hundred years old. One of their senior students is going to help me with it when he gets back from some kind of mission. Master Sensei is worried about my 'Zorpox aura' influencing my spiritual balance or something like that. A professor of Oriental Mythology/Mysticism from Eastern State University is coming out to talk to me. She's apparently an expert on Viking Berserkers and thinks that she might be able to help me keep my emotions under control when I fully call on the power"

"That's amazing Ronnie, I thought this would be one of those pilgrimages to the top of a mountain for self-discovery kind of things."

"Nope, apparently they tried that before and it was a complete disaster. The person went totally insane... and Master Sensei won't tell me any details. Ya know it would have been easier if they would have given me some of this info the last time I was here. Like a 'Welcome to Your New MMP' pamphlet or something."

"Still, you must be excited! Sounds almost too good to be true!"

"Yeah. It is too good to be true." The blond wiped the sweat from his face and stared up at the ceiling, "Seems like things are starting to look up just in time for them to come crashing down." Blowing out a long sigh, he continued,

"I think we need to rethink our relationship."

"Are you saying that you want to be released from your promise that we would be 'together forever, from now until the end of time'?" Raven knew that her boyfriend had self-esteem issues, but, what the hell?

"That promise goes both ways and it isn't fair to you."

"Not fair to me? Dammit, Ron, I get to decide that, not you! So, you don't trust that I am telling you the truth when I say that I will always be at your side!?"

"I trust you with my life and my heart, but... you should go out and do better, Kim," water splashed as he sat up straight and held up his hand to cut off her protest, "Hear me out, please." Seeing that she was going to let him talk, he continued,

"Never mind that Sensei Tōgai ran nerve conduction tests on my legs and back this morning. Those tests show that my nerves are fine, the increased clumsiness is due to brain malfunction. Never mind that the damage to my face will never heal to the point where I can leave this mask behind," he tapped the ceramic mask covering the side of his face for emphasis.

"You really think I'd drop you because you aren't one hundred percent? That you aren't 'pretty'? I choose to love you no matter what happens."

"I know that. But the real problem is that you've never found me exciting. I was never the 'hottie', the 'golden boy'. I'm not the boy you deserve." Seeing that she was still willing to let him talk, he hurried along,

"I was there when you were crushing on Josh, I saw how your eyes would fly wide from just seeing him. I was there when you first saw Eric and it was the same reaction."

"Well, yes," she admitted. "But with Josh, I had never really crushed all that much on someone before and with... Eric... he was someone completely new! I can't remember it all that well, but I can remember coming home from my first day of preschool, excited that I had made a new friend."

"I've seen pictures of you and Eric at the prom. You looked really happy and excited. The pictures of you leaving the prom showed the triumphant Empress of the Food Chain. With Eric at your side, you ruled, Kim."

"The food chain is stupid Ron, you know that!"

"You told me that you wanted to be a normal girl for one night and on that night, **that normal girl ruled the prom**. I saw the happiness and excitement in your eyes. You couldn't have done that with me. I'm not who you deserve."

Frustrated, the Goth replied, "I told you that I choose to love you and that's true, but you aren't giving me the chance to fall deeply in love with you emotionally and that's not fair. Why didn't you ask me out before Eric showed up? If you had asked me, I would have given you a chance."

"You shot me down when I brought it up," he told her. "Remember when I was crushing on Zita? Outside the theater, I said that we might date some day and you..."

"I told you that you were thinking too much," she interrupted. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have insulted you like that."

"So, after that and the 'not a date' thing at my cousin Reuben's wedding, I kind of wrote you off as 'out of my league'," he shrugged, his shoulders sending slight ripples across the water. "Eric showing up was the trigger that showed me that I could lose you totally. I started to realize that I wanted you more than just as a friend, I wanted romance, love, a life partner, I don't exactly know, just more than a friend. It really didn't ever cross your mind that maybe I could be your boyfriend?"

There was a pause as Raven struggled to figure out the words to use that would hurt the least.

"It had crossed my mind a time or two. You have been at my side both for fun stuff as well as helping on missions..."

"Yeah, the comic relief sidekick who loses his pants..."

"Yes, you're the **partner** who has lost his pants a time or two but also scuba dives, climbs cliff faces, skydives, can hold off, if not, take **out** a dozen henchmen. I never asked you partly because I was afraid that if dating went bad, I'd lose my partner as well as my best friend."

"And the other part?"

Raven leaned back and closed her eyes, unable to look at him, "You weren't dangerous. Not to me, only to villains. No mystery, I've known you all my life. You're right Ron, I'm an adrenaline junkie, you know that. My only risk in dating you would be that I would screw it up and lose you totally. Is having a girlfriend who loves you because she has decided that she would be a fool not to grab you, good enough for you? Is it important that you have a girlfriend who waits by the phone with her heart racing hoping that you will call? What about a girlfriend that doesn't get all excited because she hasn't seen you all day because she knows that you will be there for her because you always have? What about a girlfriend who doesn't want you to die alone? Come on Ron, give us a chance, we can even name our first child Rufus..."

"Ronald? Who are you talking to?"

Raven's eyes flew open, looking not at Ron, but behind him.

"Mom?! Mrs. Stoppable?!"

"Kimmy?! What did you do to your hair?"

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Vivian heard a "rockets are go" ringtone so she stuck out her tongue and touched the mic on her headset to answer the call coming in over the internal secure phone line. She was a serious 'Keyboard Master'. She thought that clicking on icons with a mouse was for small children and wimps. Why taking her hands off the keyboard to move the mouse would waste many minutes over the course of her day!

"Hi, James, what's up?" she cheerfully said, her typing rate dropping down to only fifty words a minute as part of her attention was transferred from the paper she was writing to talk to her good friend and colleague. The typing halted when she heard:

"Dr. Porter, James needs help. I've tried to help him, but I'm not really Anne. Can you send someone to help him?"

As her fingers jumped back into action, clicking keys with a rapid-fire beat, all her document windows minimized and new windows popped up on her screen. The comms window showed the call was coming from James's secret lab, the 'Personnel In/Out' window showed that James went into his lab yesterday evening and hadn't left for more than fifteen minutes at a time, probably bathroom breaks. Checking the times against the clock, James had been in his lab for the last two hours straight.

"Can I speak with James?" 'Damn,' she chastised herself, 'I told Anne I'd keep an eye on him.'

"No, he has a high fever and his speech isn't intelligible."

The cursor jumped into the comms window where she typed commands to turn on phone call recording then jumped to the security window where her typed commands reported an intruder alert and medical emergency in Top Secret Lab #3. It then jumped to the division's group chat window where she typed in a request for their boss Jaanai to meet her in James's lab; 'ASAP! Security & Medical Emergency!'. She entered one last command in the comms window to change the mode on her headset from 'local' to 'roaming'. Now she could continue talking anywhere in the building except the RF shielded, classified labs.

Slapping the keys to secure her workstation, she ran out of her office, heading to the stairwell. Even in four-inch heels, she was betting using the stairs to go down three floors would be faster than the elevator.

"OK, I'm on my way and I've told other people to come help too. Who am I talking to?"

"My name is Erica," the voice sounded steady and calm enough to trigger warnings in her mind. Need for air prevented her from talking until she reached the basement.

"OK, I'm almost there," Vivian panted, bursting out of the stairwell and racing down the hall to the lab, "Open the lab bay doors, Erica."

"I'm sorry, Vivian, I'm afraid I can't do that." The monotone voice made chills run down the A.I. expert's spine.

" **What?! WHY?!** You can just push the door from the inside and it will open, it's a fire code thing!" panting, she stopped outside the door.

"James told me to never open the door and go outside."

'DAMMIT! James, YOU IDIOT!' she mentally screamed, 'You made an A.I. and didn't put in fuzzy logic for tasks!'

Security came running up, two men in body armor and a third carrying a medical bag.

"We need this door opened, you guys got a master code?"

"No Ma'am, this lab was designed for the most secret work. We've got someone coming with a fire ax, that's our master code."

Vivian touched the mic with her tongue and said, "Erica, you still there?"

"Yes, I'm here."

"Get a chair and push it hard against the door. That will let you open the door enough for help to get in without any part of you going outside."

There was a bump and the heavy steel door opened several inches.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

"Ronald? Ronald? Look at me, dear." Ron had hoped his brain would just totally self-destruct and save him, but no, the cruel organ decided to function perfectly. Even his heart hadn't had the decency to seize up and leave him dead in the water. No, wait, Mrs. Dr. P was a doctor, she'd just revive him. Turning around he saw Master Sensei, his mom, and Mrs. Dr. P. Standing in the water with nothing between his eyes and certain doom besides small towels.

But he survived the shock, even survived the (one-armed) hugs from both moms. Master Sensei wore his inscrutable face, but his eyes did seem to twinkle with amusement. They had moved to a more spacious part of the nook where submerged time-worn rocks allowed them to sit in a circle.

Ron looked the redhead in the eyes, carefully avoiding the appearance of looking lower.

"Surely this isn't the first time you've been mixed bathing, Ronald?" Blue eyes gleamed with amusement. Eyes made black from special contacts narrowed waiting for his answer.

"Anne, stop teasing Ronald," looking seriously at her son, she continued, "Son, we heard the discussion coming over, you two were speaking rather loudly. Anne and I think we should all have a talk, right Anne?"

Dark eyes registered that the blonde was blushing a bit. Guilty conscience or just the hot mineral water?

"If you will excuse me, I need to go check on a class, I will catch up with you all after dinner, perhaps," Master Sensei stood, showing pretty solid abs for an old guy, turned and, to be accurate, fled both the area and the matriarchal wisdom about to be imparted.

"Son, you need to take it slow and easy with Kimberly, honey. You're the rebound guy and while in basketball, rebounds are good, in relationships they can be kind of shaky."

"Ron is not my rebound!" Raven sputtered.

"No, he's not a rebound..." Anne started to speak.

"Thank you!"

"He's actually a double rebound, honey," Anne waited for her daughter to stop sputtering then continued quietly, "Kimmy dear, first you gave yourself to Eric only to be betrayed by him. Then it appeared that Ron might die and then later, he didn't remember you as a friend. In less than 24 hours you lost two men that you cared deeply about and that you thought loved you and that left a serious wound in your heart."

"Is that why she sees Eric when I kiss her?"

"Ronald, James discovered that the only significant difference between Eric's and your personalities is about three years of maturity. I don't know if that matters, or if it's even relevant. I'm supposed to meet with Dr. Tōgai after dinner and go over the tests he ran on you and Kimmy." blue eyes then sparkled with amusement, "Did he **really** do a full body MRI on you two while you were making out?"

"We were only kissing! He took full body pictures!?" 'Rebound Boy' was starting to worry about trips to blackholes.

"You can rest assured, Ronald, that your data is protected by doctor-patient confidentiality. James will never see it."

"But we're getting off the topic," Jean looked at her son with sympathy, "Ronnie, the problem with being Kimberly's rebound is that her heart hasn't had nearly enough time to emotionally heal from her loss of Eric. She can't give it to you until it heals."

"Mrs. Stoppable, this isn't your typical 'girl breaks up with guy' sitch," the goth protested, "Eric was a synthodrone created to distract and humiliate me. He didn't leave me, he was destroyed by giant cockroaches. It's not like I'm going to run into him again or lay awake at night wishing we could get back together somehow."

"Kimmy, that's your brain talking, what is your heart saying?"

"Uh, Mom, I'm going by Raven now. I think my heart is telling me to give Ronnie a chance."

"First, give each other some space," suggested Jean, "No more talking about forever. I expect that forever will happen, but not if you keep worrying and arguing about it. Be friends, I don't recommend friendship with benefits, I think that will hurt more in the long run if this forever thing doesn't happen. Most importantly, have a relationship instead of worrying about a relationship." finished Jean, not saying that she worried that her son was the fragile one in this situation.

"So, I should leave Japan and go back to Middleton?" asked Raven.

"We'll talk later just the two of us, honey. But I don't think you need to be in a hurry to go anywhere just right now."

Jean's watch beeped. "Time to cool off, Anne." Both women stood up and boosted themselves up to sit on the rocks that they had been leaning against. They left their towels balanced on their heads.

"Whoa! What are you guys doing!?" Raven was scandalized.

"The water is too hot to sit in for long periods of time." said Anne, "You'll overheat and get dizzy when you stand up to leave. Get up here yourself, you've been neck-deep in that water longer than we have. Besides, sitting on this rock puts your back to the room, so it's not like your flashing anyone." with a smirk, she added, "Well, except Ronald."

Ron boosted himself up on his rock, putting his towel in his lap then swiveling around so he didn't face the women. Raven boosted herself up on the rock between the two moms and tried to wrap her towel around her front. Unhappy with the coverage, but happy that Ron wasn't looking, she finally put the towel back on her head.

The four sat on the rocks with the cool breeze blowing small streams of water vapor off of the hot water clinging to their skin.

Anne looked her daughter over, seeing the black contact lenses, the black hair put up in a bun and noticing that 'the carpet matched the drapes'. This was about as serious of a change of appearance that one could do without surgery. Was this 'Raven' still the daughter of James and Anne Possible?

"Hi," the surgeon said brightly, looking at the girl, "I am Anne Possible, I'm a neurosurgeon, wife, and mother of three. Would you tell me your name and a little about yourself?"

The goth looked confused for only a second, then continued, "Hi Anne, my name is Raven Mara. I am a junior in high school and have come to Japan to look at finishing high school here with my best friend in the world, Ron Stoppable. I have a small team that helps people out, we occasionally fight supervillains. The girl that I am replacing killed two villains. She believed that she had no choice, but I believe that a true hero can always find a way to avoid killing people. She also had this strange idea that she had to do it all because if you rely on others you increase the chance of failure."

"And what if you can't find another way, dear?" asked Jean.

"Well, I am experimenting with Goth philosophy with its concept that eventual failure is an inevitability. But in the meantime, you relax, enjoy the dying of the light as best you can and still try to help others."

"Mom, where's Dad and Hana?" Ron had a sudden vision of Hana dancing all over the onsen.

"Gene is playing with Hana. Yori insisted that 'it was her honor' to watch Hana until we got to the school. The poor woman had to be exhausted by the time we walked up the mountain. I hope she's taking a nap."

"Mom, where are Jim and Tim? Too shy to come into the baths?" Anne's heart did a little happy dance that this 'Raven Mara' persona had called her 'Mom'.

"Hirotaka offered to take them to this geek and comic book mecca called Akihabara. Wade suggested that they check it out. I'm a little surprised not to see them, I figured they would have gotten here before I did."

Anne's watch buzzed, interrupting her train of thought.

"Oh, I need to go meet with Dr. Tōgai. Ronald, please come with me and show me where his office is. You should be there just in case we want another scan or something." Seeing Raven starting to move, the surgeon added, "That's OK, Raven. You should stay and finish your soak with Jean in case she needs help finding her way back." She held black eyes with her own until the girl nodded in understanding. Standing up the surgeon held her arm out to Ron. "Ronald, dear, I'm still a touch woozy from the heat, please hold my arm to steady me."

Raven slid back into the milky water as Ron turned around. She watched Ron and her Mom wade to the edge, her blond most courteously gave her mom a hand out of the pool and they walked to the washing area.

"Mrs. Stoppable, you know how to get back, right?"

"Call me Jean if you like, Raven. Yes, I know this campus pretty well. Gene and I have spent several weeks out here if you add up all the trips we've made. But since we are here, can we talk?"

"Ron is having trouble with occasionally falling, perhaps I..." The Goth was pretty tired of talking to be honest, but she did like Ron's mother. Plus, she figured that her mom wanted to get him alone to talk.

"Anne will see that he gets there safely. Asking him to hold her arm was to steady him, not her. Just out of curiosity, why did you and Ronald decide to have a talk naked in the baths?"

"Blame that on me. This Ninja named Katsumi decided to help us settle in. When she suggested that this place would be a good place to talk sort of in public but where people wouldn't hear you if you talked quietly, it sounded good to me. A relaxing soak in hot water, a chance to have a normal boyfriend/girlfriend chat. At least there wouldn't be snakes dropping in on us..."

The blonde mom blinked, started to ask something, stopped and finally said, "Tell me about the snakes later, honey. That sounds like a story you'll end up repeating anyway. Do you and Ronald often do things naked? Like homework?"

"No! Nothing like that! I know it sounds weird, but Katsumi claimed that people sometimes bathe like this as a family. I guess I hoped that relaxing naked in hot water physically would relax Ronnie's mind and lower his mental defenses if that makes any sense. Ronnie is the kind of person that I don't have to worry about taking advantage of the lack of clothing sitch."

"You know, there is something to be said of a woman having the ability to drive her guy crazy with lust. At the appropriate time and place of course."

"Frankly Jean, I can't imagine Ronnie being driven by lust. Lust for Tex-Mex maybe, but not for me."

"Let's talk about Ronald and his inadequacies."

"But Ronnie isn't inadequate!" Raven felt like she just got mental whiplash, surely his mom wasn't saying that he needed to be more lusty for her?

"I'm glad you think that. He worries about not being good enough or fast enough to protect you. Sometimes, not often mind you, but occasionally he wakes us up with a nightmare that he was seconds too late to save you from a collapsing lair or something."

"I'm not so incompetent that I have to be saved all the time!" the teen hero objected, "But I guess to be fair, I know that I can push closer to the edge because he is there to catch me if I fall. Did you know that no cheerleader has been hurt in a fall since Ron has been the Mad Dog mascot and spotter? That's wearing the dog head. Imagine how much better he is without it. No, Ron is a great partner, true, he's a little goofy and unfocused at times, but I really couldn't do what I do without him."

"His father and I are quite proud of him from the little we have heard about your missions. We've heard more here than we ever did in Middleton. You are an amazing young woman and being able to keep up with you is something that maybe one percent of the young men in this world could do. Maybe not even that many."

"Have you told him that? Has he ever heard either of his parents say that they are proud of what he can do?"

"No, I know that sounds terrible, but Ronald tends to become big-headed easily. We have been afraid that he would push himself even harder and get hurt if we told him how proud we were of him. Still, the bottom line is that he worries that he isn't good enough for you. We had hoped that moving to Japan would give him some space to find himself without being constantly in your shadow."

"You think we should split up?" Raven was torn between anger and being hurt.

"We aren't suggesting that you two split up, we have promised ourselves for years that he would be free to fall in love with whoever he wanted without Gene or I interfering."

"Does that have anything to do with his being a ballerina that one year for trick or treat?"

Ron's mother laughed, "No dear, he's always been a little different, but I do think he self-identifies as male."

Turning serious, the mom continued, "I didn't believe for a second that moving to Japan would split you up totally, just maybe reduce the time you spend together a little. We worry about him comparing himself to only you. We simply thought that here, he would have a chance to compare himself to more people in this "hero" business that are around his age."

Sliding down into the water so she was eye-to-eye with the object of her son's angst, she asked, "What are your intentions with my son? I heard the part of the discussion where he doesn't excite you. Are you just making sure that he will be available as a partner? With the brain damage from his fight with Shego, I wonder how he is going to be able to keep up with you."

"Mrs. Stoppable... Jean, I will make sure that Ron can keep up with me."

"Oh no, dear, you can't hold back on his account, that would destroy him."

* * *

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

Suzie Chin (Subira Chen) and her partner in Ninja-hood Wanda Wang are all from Sentinel103 and his " **Once Again"** stories.

 **Authors Note:** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and plot bunny wranglers. Lots of dialog help this chapter. Except for the bad dialog, that is mine.

Posted September 15th, 2018


	13. Chapter 13

**STD 2018-**

Hirotaka had found the twins in the basement of the sex toy department store. Fortunately, they were in an engineering discussion that seemed mostly innocuous. Unfortunately, his presence made the Yakuza watching the discussion decide that it was some sort of industrial espionage and they took over the meeting. If the twins had not been there, he believed that he could have fought his way out of the building. At least long enough for nearby backup to arrive. If he had Wanda with him for backup, she would have happily knocked a few heads together while he got the twins out.

But, in the interest of keeping the boys safe, he identified himself as their Yamanouchi bodyguard and acted as if this meeting had been the plan from the start. About forty-five minutes later, the word came down that the three of them were to be considered "honored guests" and treated with respect. But, not allowed to leave.

Their 'hosts' decided to move them to a 'more comfortable' and secure location. Hirotaka gave someone his keys to the van so that they could move it for him. He reminded himself to have the van searched for trackers and spy devices by the second year students when they got back to the school. That they would not get back OK did not occur to him, because Hirotaka did not fail in his duties.

They arrived an hour later at a small factory in an area full of warehouses.

Getting out of an enormous limo, they were escorted through a working factory floor to a meeting room in the back. The two boys weren't impressed by what they saw.

"Making robots using silicon in molds?" questioned Tim,

"Whoa, their skeletons aren't powered, they're just big dolls..." scoffed Jim;

"and we'd get poor grades in Art class for the unrealistic proportions of some of these dolls..." Tim added.

Hirotaka noticed that the torsos coming out of the molds were definitely feminine and this gave him a suspicion of what the 'robots' or 'dolls' were going to be used for. This was not a place that Anne-sensei would want her boys visiting until they were in their mid-thirties, maybe forties, maybe never. His only consolation was that the rest of Team Cobra wasn't here. Wanda would be laughing at him, Yori would look disappointed in him as a person, Suzie would act like this was a normal lair.

However, he had to break out of his act of being the calm and collected gentleman and hustle the boys towards the meeting room when he spotted a specific torso; one whose features matched those of a slender, athletic, yet feminine teenage crime fighter. A teenage crime fighter's body that seemed familiar from somewhere... But it was for naught when he heard,

"Tim, does that body look like Sis?" mentioned Jim.

"Nah, the boobs are way too big," replied his brother.

An older man met them at the door and bowed in greeting.

"Ah, the Possible brothers. Welcome. Do you believe that you can do better?"

Tim reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a gray translucent blob about the size of a tennis ball. Jim pulled out a little remote control and started pressing buttons on it.

The blob changed into a bright green octopus and pulled itself across the boy's hand, grasping fingers with tentacles. Then it transformed into a blue and green striped snake and coiled around his wrist. Dropping to the floor, it landed as a black ninja figure and performed a martial arts demonstration with a flurry of kicks. Changing into a bird, it flapped up and landed on Tim's hand, once again becoming just a blob.

"We are looking for someone who is interested in marketing a universal toy," said Jim.

"A toy that you never get tired of because it can become something new every day," added Tim.

"We tried marketing to American Toy companies," said Jim.

"But they said they needed kids to get tired of toys, so their parents would buy them new ones," added Tim.

"Is that as large as the toy can be made?" asked the gentleman.

"No Sir, that is just a convenient size," started Tim.

"for us to carry past customs," finished Jim, then added, "the manufacturing cost is proportional to the weight, but this is an improved version of the technology Dr. Drakken used to make artificial humanoid guards for his operations."

Jim continued, "Given that the weight tends to go up with the cube of the size, but the strength only increases with the square of the cross-sectional diameter, a large human is approaching the limit of this version of our technology. I suppose you could go larger if the shape was fixed..."

"And what would you want for this technology, that is for the design and licensing fees?"

"Well," Tim pulled a thick stack of papers out of a courier bag, the pre-teen looked like an icy-cold corporate lawyer at that moment, "We have some proposed contracts that we wrote up, including initial technology support at a very reasonable hourly rate."

"Purely as a starting point for discussion, you understand." Jim's smile was the kind of friendly smile that made you reach for your wallet to make sure that it was still there...

"Bouyatachi ('little dudes'), call me Dia Bosu. Come to the conference room and let's talk. Shikoku, please get snacks and soft drinks for our guests. Perhaps some tea for their associate from the Mountain?" The 'Big Boss' smiled widely and gestured them into the conference room.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Vivian desperately tried to catch her breath. The only real violence she had ever experienced was the Robot Rumble where, at most, there was oil leaking from ripped off hydraulics. Now, the blood oozing from the sliced off hand laying in front of her had her on the border of panic. She was afraid that she might throw up.

She heard her earpiece click and beep as it connected to the internal phone system.

"God bless that idiot James!" 'He must have installed a bootleg connection to his computer terminal in his office', as her earpiece was now using that to connect to the phone system. "Computer... Call security," she commanded her earpiece.

"Security, this is Bob, how can I help you?"

"Bob! This is Dr. Vivian Porter. I need a biohazard lockdown on Top Secret Lab #3. Call the CDC, tell them we need them. This is not a drill!"

"Ma'am I need author..."

"Bob! Listen to me! I am looking at a contamination spill right in front of me! I am all the authorization that you need and you know it. Do it, Bob! Do it, NOW!"

"Yes, Ma'am." She heard him type on the keyboard, heard the lab doors latch shut and then her ears popped as the lab ventilation system went into negative pressure mode to prevent toxic gases or bacteriological threats from escaping the lab through cracks in the door seals. She hung up when she heard him talking on the phone to someone from the CDC.

"Dr. Porter," one of the security team walked over, "Is there a problem? Did you find out what was making the metallic noises?"

Right... Looking for the source of the metallic popping noises was why she came over here in the first place. That and because she felt pretty useless standing next to an unconscious James.

Vivian stood up from where she had been squatting, "It was just thermal expansion from the prototype, it must have just returned from someplace very, very cold." She held up a heavily padded mitten of some sort, "This was caught on the FTL prototype chassis. I pulled it off and... and that fell out." She pointed to a severed hand on the padded floor of the chamber.

"Damn! That's not a human hand, is it?" the security officer knelt down and held out his hand for a size comparison, "At least if there were any Chinese or Russian astronauts that were, say, nine-feet tall with greenish complexion on a moon mission, I think we'd know about it."

"Let's not get carried away, the SETI protocols are shaky and that's for detecting a radio signal. For detecting a real alien, or a piece of one, God only knows what we are supposed to do... Is tearing off an astronaut's hand an act of war? The hell of it is that the first person I'd go to for guidance is laying over there out of his mind with some kind of fever."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Ron met Anne outside the changing area. She was wearing ankle boots, jeans and a simple blue polo shirt that he thought matched her eyes. If her mom was any indication, Raven would be an even more beautiful woman years from now. The sense of impending loss made his heart ache. The redhead walked over to him and slipped her arm through his.

"Got any naked pictures of you and Kimmy?" the surgeon asked with a rarely seen impish light in her eyes.

"What? No!"

"Want some?" laughing at the shocked look on her young victim's face. "Lead me to Dr. Tōgai's place, please and thank you. We can look at them there."

"Mrs. Dr. P, are you feeling OK?"

"Why, yes, Ronald, I am. This is the first real vacation for me in years, you are my only patient, Hirotaka is entertaining the twins, Raven calls me mom, this place is beautiful, all that is missing is James. I think I'll convince him to come out and join me after his project demo is done."

Feeling him stiffen, she continued, "Trust me, James won't give you any problems when he comes out. I am thrilled that you and Kimmy are going to try the relationship thing and I know that James will be OK with it, once I explain it to him."

"Maybe you won't have to..."

"Ronald, what are your intentions with my daughter?" she teased, "Surely you aren't going to run off with her?"

Ronald stopped with Anne still hanging onto his arm. Rubbing the back of his neck, "Not **with** her, no..."

Anne's heart cracked a little at the sorrow and regret in the young man's voice. She enveloped him in a fierce hug,

"Dear, I've read the mission logs, even Wade's private notes and I know that no one else could have done what you've done to make sure she always came home safe to me and her father."

"But that was before..."

The red-haired mom released the hug and held the young man by the arms.

"Listen to me Ronald Stoppable, I might be able to fix your problem. It might not be a quick fix, but give me a chance. But no matter what, you do not leave without having a long talk with me, do you understand? That is, you will not take a one-way trip to any place, a plane of existence or non-existence without talking to me, in person. Not Master Sensei, not your parents, not Kimmy. Me. Now, promise."

"Come on, Mrs. Dr. P, surely you don't think I'll do anything stupid?"

"Don't lie to me. If you thought that it would be better for Kimmy if you were out of the picture, you'd be gone in a heartbeat. But you'd be wrong. Now promise."

"Uh, shouldn't we be getting to Sensei Tōgai?"

"Ronald..." the name was a growl and the blond teen caught the blue eyes narrowing.

Ron frowned, "I'm sorry Mrs. Dr. P, but I... I can't promise that."

"Anne-sensei, Stoppable-san," Yori's bright voice broke the deadlock, "Uh, excuse me if I am interrupting, But Master Sensei requires the presence of Anne-Sensei. It has something to do with Jim and Tim, lawyers, and legal contracts of some sort."

"Which way Yori?" The surgeon gripped the hapless blond to pull him along.

"I'm sorry Anne-Sensei, but some of the people that are present must not see Stoppable-san. I must take just you to the meeting."

"Which building is it in? I can find the meeting, but I want you to take Ronald to Dr. Tōgai's office and keep him there. Do not let him out of your sight until I get there."

Yori blinked, but a Sensei was a Sensei, "See the building to the left of the temple? Go in there and tell anyone that you are here to answer Master Sensei's summons. They will take you to him."

As Anne walked away, Yori reached out and pinched the blond's forearm. Frowning, she said, "Stoppable-san, you are a little dehydrated from the hot baths. Perhaps a stop at the kitchens on our way there for some liquid is advisable."

"And some snackage!"

Rolling her eyes, "You are such an American..." the young woman smiled fondly.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

"Jean," Raven tried to express some pretty confused feelings, "I know that I want Ron by my side, even if we never do the hero business again. At the very least, now that Mom is here, I'm going to be doing counseling sessions for a while before she lets me go back to hero work. There is a lot I can learn here, maybe I could have found another way to deal with Drakken and Shego if I just knew more."

"You'd really give up hero work if Anne asked you to?"

"At least for a while. I'd try to obey her wishes, but if there was some disaster where I could make a real difference, I might go without discussing it with her, first. I think she'd support that."

"Do you want him by your side as a friend? Ronald is hoping for more, you know."

"As a friend, absolutely. I really feel that I want more, but even if you and Mom are right about the rebound thing, I owe him an honest chance to win my heart."

"Why?" her boyfriend's mom asked.

Looking a little lost, "I... I..." the goth wondered when all the love and affection stuff got so damned hard.

Hugging Raven tightly, Jean simply said, "That's OK, dear, you and Ronald have time to work out the answers. Let's go rinse off and get dressed before we become complete prunes..."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Hirotaka was pondering the end of his young life. Not that he feared death, but that his current trip on this cycle of his life had so many wonders left to explore and challenges to face. Like Ayame, Phuong, and Natasha.

He wasn't certain how, but one way or another the twins, the 'Bouyatachi' as their Yakuza hosts called them, were going to be the death of him. Earlier, at the start of their very first meeting, there was a delay while Dia Bosu called his boss and arranged for some of their lawyers to join them. The twins were young, but years of negotiating with their sister had taught them not to show too many cards in their hand until the contract was signed.

While they were waiting for the lawyers to show up, the boys were showing some of the Yakuza soldiers the 'easy' stuff. Like how drinking straws plus fairly common household chemicals could be used to make a solid fuel rocket engine with a peak thrust of around one hundred pounds. The little engines worked and did not explode, as he had feared. The Yakuza kept distracting the senior Ninja student with details of policy matters between them and the Mountain. Hirotaka knew that one took their eyes off the 'Bouyatachi' at their peril. He soon found out that Yakuza had discovered the Achilles heel on his young charges. A girl's tears.

Hirotaka would later swear that he had been gone for no more than ten minutes for a quick meeting on some details of coordinating response teams during natural disasters. Walking back into the conference room, he saw Tim and Jim rapidly sketching diagrams on a whiteboard with two Yakuza soldiers furiously copying the information on legal pads. Sitting at the conference table was a pretty young woman sporting a tremendous black eye and a puffy split lip. She had a small cloth in her hand and was blotting her eyes. Walking over to Tim, he asked,

"Tim-san, what did I miss?"

"The girl's name is Kiri. She works at one of those maid cafes that you told us to stay out of. A customer came in and paid the extra money to have her serve him tea and snacks in a private room in the back of the cafe. The guy was not only a jerk but he hit her!" the young man nearly quivered in anger.

"That is terrible," the ninja admitted, "but isn't that a matter for the police or the shop manager?"

"The shops are run by a rival to Dia Bosu's group. They have the police paid off and if this group interferes directly, that could start a gang war."

"So, what are you and Jim designing? And how will it help?"

"We are designing a morphing syntho-maid. A syntho-maid can't be hurt by an abusive customer and the morphing ability allows the cafe to have servers that can be pretty much anything their customers want. Like anime or cartoon characters, replicas of famous people, whatever. Dia Bosu's bunch will start rival cafes and run the others out of business."

"What happens to the girls working in the current cafes?"

"We aren't providing real AI in these morphing syntho-maids. They will need puppeteers. The real girls already know how to be a maid, it will be easy to train them to be the puppeteers."

Jim paused and turned to talk, "We considered the worst-case scenarios. The morphing ability requires a low-pressure syntho-goop system which limits the strength to about that of a normal girl," grinning, he clarified, "that's a normal girl, not Kim."

Tim finished, "Requiring puppeteers means that there is no AI to go rogue and rampage through Tokyo. Trust us, nothing can go wrong..."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Ron and Yori walked down the path to the infirmary's laboratory after detouring to the kitchens to grab a couple of Yakitori sticks and chilled water bottles.

"Why did you refuse Anne-Sensei's request to talk to her before you leave?" the young woman asked quietly, wondering if the blond was actually planning to leave soon.

"She'll talk me out of doing what I think is the right thing to do."

"Surely you are strong enough to do the right thing no matter what she says, yes? Your refusal to honor her request is upsetting her, denying her the peace and harmony she has found here."

"I'm not sure I can withstand her Puppy Dog Pout..." the blond held his head in defeat just thinking about it.

"Puppy Dog Pout?" Yori wondered out loud. Before Ron could explain, they neared the lab attached to the infirmary and heard a young woman cursing in rage.

"Uh, Ron-san? Remember in the hotel when you claimed that you could almost see Wanda's words swirling around you? Well, I told Sensei Tōgai, and he asked to see Wanda for an MRI scan. Be warned, I will throw you in her path to escape should she seek retribution."

The blond laughed, but looking at his companion, he wasn't sure she was kidding. Biting off the last bit of chicken, Ron threw the stick in the trash and stepped through the door of the control room, Yori, following her orders, had walked right behind him to keep him in sight.

Ron saw the MRI with someone in it as evidenced by the feet sticking out and the loud voice protesting. Sensei Tōgai was at the controls, typing on a keyboard. Kamiko was in the room and pressed the 'eject' button. The table rolled out showing a slender woman dressed in a long tee shirt.

As soon as the patient was freed by Kamiko removing the antenna grid over her face, Wanda sat up, shifting to full rant mode. Struck by the random thought that she looked more slender than when he had seen her in a sleep shirt in the US, he pondered, 'Is this because she had to remove all her weapons for the MRI? Does she really sleep with that many weapons concealed on her person?' Her angry voice faded into the background as her words once again seemed to take form and swirl around him, something about an egg of a tortoise that ate tofu?

Anne entered the radiology lab at a jog, she had heard Wanda cursing at someone, in Chinese, she thought. She arrived to find an angry Wanda gesturing at Dr. Tōgai who was in a strategic retreat. At the other door was Yori and Ron. Ron looked dazed and there was a slight, soft blue glow to his eyes. Wanda's eyes also had a slight blue shine, although hers was an angry blue.

Ron felt a strong hand turn his face and then a light was shown in each eye.

"Ronald, honey, talk to me," Anne's voice broke through his daze, "What do you see? How do you feel?"

Sensei Tōgai interrupted them, "Wang-kun is being unreasonable. Stoppable-kun, surely you wouldn't object to letting me do a joint MRI on you and her... Kissing would be optional..."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

 **"Mystical Cuddle Puddle"**

"Not going to try to stuff everyone in your machine, Sensei Tōgai?" Wanda said sweetly.

"Not big enough and sometimes, Wanda-chan, a scientist must use his own senses to gather data even if they are poorly calibrated," the doctor replied ignoring the pointed comment. He was dressed in somewhat garish pajamas covered in brightly colored winged ponies.

Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable brought in another armload of pillows and quilts. Yori had proposed to recreate the conditions that had given Kim her dream of seeing Ron off at the airport. Master Sensei agreed that it would be interesting to try.

Jean Stoppable sat on the couch, amused. She and her husband Gene, along with Kamiko, would be the experiment monitors. Master Sensei sat relaxed in a lotus position off to the side, claiming that he would provide mystical energy to the young Hana should she require it. Incense sticks with a soothing aroma and a few candles were scattered around the room providing a dim light that should be sufficient should any dreamer need to get up in the middle of the night without stepping on anyone.

The two doctors, Raven, the two Ninja girls, and Ron spread out quilts and arranged pillows to create what Yori and Hana were calling a 'cuddle puddle'. Rufus was at the ready to provide his napping-self wherever it was needed. The amusing part was that Raven had subtly steered Ron into sleeping between herself and her mom and away from Yori and Wanda. Unlike the older physician, Anne didn't have a set of comical pajamas, she wore a low-cut silk nightshirt. Jean reminded herself to tease Anne about how her daughter didn't see her as a threat.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

 **Dreams**

Anne found herself in a biology classroom complete with lab tables. Across from her was a young Dr. Tōgai. Reaching behind her head, she felt a ponytail. Was she back in college? Looking around, she saw other students in pairs at the lab tables, but she was somehow unable to focus on them.

"Listen up, people! Sensei Yamanaka had an unfortunate yakitori grilling accident and I'll be taking over for the rest of this..."

A short, dark-haired young girl wearing a dark blazer with white piping and a tartan plaid skirt falling below her knees appeared and started pushing the large man toward the door.

"Barkin-sama! There was no accident, just a minor fire and stab wound when my sister tried to help. I am fine! Go please!"

Once she was alone at the front of the classroom, she began her lecture,

"Today we will look at a case study. The patient has suffered a trauma to the brain, yet damage from the trauma has healed to the point where all functions that were impaired have either been rerouted to other parts of the brain or have been restored in newly generated brain tissue. While this is amazing, it is not the issue. We are concerned with a damaged area that was a result of weakened tissue caused by being experimented on by a mad scientist."

A projection screen lowered and displayed the pictures of two brains, side-by-side. The two images were labeled 'Brother' and 'Dark Sister'. The instructor continued, pulling out a laser pointer to highlight areas.

"The area marked in red is the area that is deteriorating. The male's brain shows more advanced decay than the female's, but if you look closely, you can see the damage in both. I believe that this was due to a 'brain swap' machine that the two were exposed to several years ago."

The young girl looked annoyed, "Of course, this machine didn't really swap their brains, that would be silly, it just swapped most of the electrochemical patterns of the two brains. I believe a side-effect of that has caused these independent, unused structures to appear."

The laser pointer pointed out areas shaded in blue on the images.

"I believe that Noishi's scans show that these areas are not in use. If you do tissue typing of those areas, you will find that those areas actually belong to the other person. I have a theory of how they were created, but the important thing is that slivers of that area in Dark Sister's brain can be placed in Brother's brain and that tissue will grow to fix the decay. And vice versa. Normally, I'd suggest using T-cells, but since you have cells of the correct tissue type already, why not use them?"

Two brains made out of meatloaf appeared on every lab table along with plates, silverware, napkins, and bottles of ketchup and mustard.

"For the rest of the class period, practice replacing the damaged area represented by the cluster of green pepper strips with the duplicate section in the other brain, represented by the bacon pieces."

Sternly looking at her students, she remarked, "No nibbling on the brains until I have reviewed your work."

* * *

...

Wanda walked to the shrine of the Lotus Blade. A voice had woken her from a really nice dream and the dream had faded away. All she could remember was that she was helping out Team Panther in a bar fight in Singapore. Annoyed, she followed the call across the main courtyard trying to let the gentle sounds of the wind chimes soothe and center her spirit.

Arriving, she looked around but saw no one. The Lotus Blade was leaning against a railing and started to slide down. With a cry of surprise, she grabbed it before it could hit the ground. As soon as she grasped the hilt, the courtyard disappeared and she was standing in an infinite plain of knee-high grass. A man leaning on a black iron staff stood before her. She didn't think he was all that remarkable, the most notable things about him was a beard that grew up high on the sides of his face. His eyes looked more comfortable laughing than anything else. And he had a tail.

'OK, the tail is a distinctive feature.' she thought.

"Wanda-chan, I see that you carry the Lotus Blade," the man grinned and twirled his staff, not in a threatening manner, but as someone who really can't keep still.

That was when her brain caught up to her. Bowing so low her hair touched the grass she said,

"Wukong-sama! Forgive me, but I had to grab it before it hit the dirt!"

The man laughed, a laugh of such humor and joy that Wanda found herself grinning.

"That blade was used by Toshimiru to carve the Mountain to make a place for the original Yamanouchi temple, a little dirt won't hurt it. Besides, you need to practice with it."

"Yah! I am not a chosen one! I am not worthy to carry it!"

The man's eyes turned sorrowful, "Wanda-chan, I can see a time when you must call it. A time when the Chosen One and even the Mountain itself have fallen."

"No! Never! I am a Ninja of Yamanouchi! Before Yamanouchi falls, I will have died defending it, no matter how terrible the evil. And I swear that my life will cost that evil dearly!" The tears of rage that appeared in the Ninja's eyes turned to anguish as she added, "Please, Master, do not make me outlive my Mountain."

The man stepped forward and embraced her as a general might embrace a mighty captain. "Remember young Ninja, that Yamanouchi is not a mountain of granite, but people," the Monkey King spoke gently, "You must be ready to create a new Mountain for a new Temple. For your people." Holding her by the arms, he stepped back to look at her.

"Perhaps we should practice so that you and the Sword will be better acquainted..." Grinning, he swung his staff at her head. She responded with a diving roll to the side, coming up with a thrust aimed at his ribs.

Laughing, with occasional shouts of glee the two drilled across the grassy plain...

* * *

...

"Kaemon-san, you have done well, I am proud of you," The man wearing what looked like Samurai armor, but was of an age before Samurai, poured them tea.

"Toshimiru-sama, I have done my best and hope to continue for many years still," Master Sensei passed a pastry to his host.

"I am truly sorry," placing his helmet to the side, he looking into the headmaster's eyes, "even mountains do not last forever. Prepare to scatter your people to the far corners of the map. This mountain's time might be reaching an end."

"Might?"

"Nothing is certain. Still, a danger approaches that our Ninja cannot fight."

* * *

...

Yori walked across the rickety looking rope bridge, tightly holding hands with the two children. The bridge was sturdy enough, she didn't just trust the children not to cartwheel over the edge. A tear rolled down her cheek, she had been away from this place for far too long.

But she was home now.

A gray-whiskered naked mole rat riding on the head of an enormous Eastern Indigo Snake greeted them at the main gates.

"Welcome Toshimiru Yori!" the mole rat squeaked, "Come in for tea and cheese!"

* * *

...

"Welcome home, master!" a cute female naked mole rat called to Rufus from outside the maid cafe while another coaxed, "Come in, we have tea and cheese waiting. Technically they couldn't be called naked because they both wore cute little maid outfits.

"You know master, for a small additional fee, we have a private area in the back where we can race through hot, steamy tunnels..."

"OK!" the little hero squeaked in excitement. The cold, hard, dry plastic tunnels his boy had set up for him weren't the same as the hot, humid tunnels carved through the earth that he had scampered through as a young naked molerat.

* * *

...

Little Kimmie fought back tears. Those boys had taken away her ball and when this blond boy came up to defend her, the biggest one had hit him in the nose making it bleed. Beyond furious, she was on her way to kick some bully butt when Mr. Smithson, the daycare manager had stepped in and stopped her, saying, "Now Kimmie, good little girls don't fight. Let's go find a baby doll for you to play with. Practice for when you have a baby of your own.

Kimmie now sat in the corner with her precious little bundle. Petting its chest, she cooed, "What a cute little baby! I'm gonna name you, Shiva." Little tentacles reached up and gripped her fingers. Putting her face close to it, she said, "Whose mommy's little Destroyer of Worlds? That's right! You are! You're mommy's little Destroyer of Worlds!"

The stars faded from little Ronnie's vision. His nose hurt and was dripping red. The boys that had taken their ball away were laughing as the girl he hoped would be his friend was led away by the daycare manager. A cold blue fury swept through his small frame and the next thing he remembered was many hands pulling him off of a much larger boy.

"Wow! This kid is tough," he heard a voice say, "let's introduce him to Big Joey."

The boy he had knocked to the ground got up and put a hand on his shoulder. "Yeah, you can be one of us..."

Anne woke because Ron was tightly clutching her nightshirt. She had seen this behavior in all her children, but not in the last ten years or so. He was having a nightmare. Believing that waking him could interrupt an important part of a dream, she rolled over enough so she could put her arm around him. Before long, he sighed and relaxed, the dream had passed. Sleepy brown eyes opened and looked at her,

"Mrs. Dr. P?" a soft sleepy murmur.

"Yes, dear?"

"I won't go anywhere without talking to you first, I promise."

"Thank you dear, now go back to sleep," the red-haired mom kissed his forehead.

She watched as the sleepy blond rolled over and put his arm over her daughter.

"Cuddle Puddle," she laughed to herself and drifted back to sleep.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Hirotaka was convinced that twins were not human. Their initial design work was finished, the negotiations with the lawyers seemed to have come to a satisfactory conclusion to all parties. Waiting for Yakuza soldiers to come back with some required parts, the two boys were modifying part of the factory floor to build the first run of Morphing Syntho Maids. Surrounded by piles of life size doll limbs, torsos and heads, he felt like he was in some horror movie. The twins, other than the initial period of snickering, were totally focused on their work.

Tim and Jim had recruited the services of Heishi, a gnarled old Yakuza soldier who had semi-retired to be the factory's mechanic and machinist. He was from 'back in the day' when the Yakuza soldier types wore garish tattoos and cut off body parts to apologize for failure. He spoke reasonable English and told the boys tales 'from the bad old days'. The boys, fortunately for Hirotaka, took his tales with a grain of salt, but thought his tattoos were 'really cool'.

About midnight, the initial test production of syntho-goop was started and having nothing to do except wait for more parts to arrive and the first batch of syntho-goop to finish, the twins and their bodyguard took a shower and went to bed on mats in the corner of the meeting room.

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

Suzie Chin (Subira Chen) and her partner in Ninja-hood Wanda Wang are all from Sentinel103 and his " **Once Again"** stories.

 **Authors Note:** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and plot bunny wranglers. Posted September 27th, 2018


	14. Chapter 14

Dr. 'Slim' Possible was checking his favorite list of science websites for updates, along with a fan fiction site or two that he followed when the phone rang. Actually half a ring, he mused that his daughter was quicker than a rattlesnake strike when it came to answering the phone.

"Daddy! It's Nana!" Joss hollered from the kitchen where she was working on homework.

"Hi, Momma, how ya doin?" ... "Nope, I haven't talked to James lately, why?" ... ... ... ... "Whoo boy, momma, that don't sound right!" ... ... ... "Joss knows how to get a hold of that Wade fella. I'll ask her to tell him to expect your call. 'Course, I don't know how much good that'll do, last I heard from Annie, she and the twins were on their way to Japan to meet up with Kimberly Ann and the Stoppables." ... ... "Ninjas? You don't say!" ... ... "Well, I'll be a three-eared jackrabbit, I guess those kids run into all types in Middleton." ... "Momma, if'n we can help James, you say the word and we'll be there." ... ... ... "OK, Nite momma, love ya."

Slim got up stretching and walked to the kitchen.

"Joss, baby, give Wade Load a call and tell him that Momma will be calling." then added, "Better tell him that Amanda Possible will be calling. Seems like your Uncle James is in some kind of a bind. We are going to help Nana's boys spring him and I reckon we should send him to your Aunt Anne in Japan. Until Momma can cool off the heat."

"Kin I go?" green eyes flashed with excitement.

"Sugar, I don't want you to miss that much school. Maybe I could send you over for visit over summer break. Kimberly might still be there and I hear that Ronald Stoppable and his naked prairie dog is moving there to live. I'm sure they'd love for you to visit for a spell."

"Maybe Dr. Director could help get Uncle James to Japan. They've got them fast hover jets."

That's a fine idea, darlin, you call Wade and I'll go find a secure phone and give 'Lizbeth a call..."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Suzie finished making her BLT, grabbed a glass of iced tea and a bag of chips. Walking down the stairs she knocked at a door, "Wade-san? I'm here to relieve you." She had learned to not just walk in, the youngster's operations center was also his bedroom and the boy seemed to have body issues...

"Come on in, Suzie-san," came the voice through the door. Going in, she saw Wade Load sitting like a spider at the center of its web. Or in his case, sitting in a swivel computer chair at the center of a half-circle of monitors.

"Something is happening at the Space Center," Wade pointed to two windows showing video from two of his stealth cameras. One camera looked like a decorative rock in a planter by the entrance. The second one was hidden in a picture frame. Backing up the video he showed her two ambulances and an unmarked large white panel truck go in. "The truck has Government plates. Department of Motor Vehicles records show that it belongs to the Center for Disease Control. The ambulances arrived an hour ago and have not left. There were no radio messages to or from them."

Pointing to another window, he said, "This camera came online briefly nearly two hours ago. I made a mistake in the settings and didn't get an immediate notification. It got carried into a shielded room, but somehow got a cell tower connection for less than a minute." Typing on a keyboard the video started and the sound was heard on his speakers.

James walked to the center of the view, stopped and rubbed his temples. The scientist looked terrible; pale and sweating.

"Mr. Dr. P looks bad, I bet the ambulances are for him," said Wade.

They heard him speak, his voice sounded hoarse and faint;

"What have I been thinking? I'm a such a bad mad-scientist! Uh, do you think Neil would like his boots back?"

They watched as he stepped off camera and returned holding a pair of bulky boots.

"Possible-sensei seems delirious," commented the Ninja standing behind the tech genius.

They watched a woman with short auburn hair and only wearing a man's dress shirt walk into view and embrace the sick engineer. The woman said, "I'm sure he'd be pleased that you have them, honey. And you're not a bad mad-scientist, you're a good, good-scientist."

Wade typed furiously on his keyboard for several seconds.

"Is that Anne-sensei? Does she have a younger sister?"

"I am getting an 82% for a voice match with known examples from Mrs. Dr. P," the young genius said, "I don't think that's her. Maybe a clone?"

To their horror, they watched the scientist sag in the woman's arms as she said, "James? James! Honey, don't leave us! We love you, honey, stay with us..."

The woman carried him off screen as easily as if he was a small child. The video went blank and the words "Connection lost" appeared on the screen.

"What do we do? Team Possible isn't good to go and they're in Japan."

"Katsumi should be here tomorrow, but I think we'd better see if we can get the rest of Team Cobra on their way here," Suzie pulled out her cellphone and started texting.

Seeing a window flash on his leftmost monitor, Wade typed a few fast keystrokes and said, "Hi Joss, we were just getting ready to call you. Is your Dad around? We just saw something about your Uncle James and..."

Suzie looked up to see Wade listening. After a few seconds, he started talking and typing again, "OK, is Amanda Possible the same person as Kim's Nana who makes lemon squares?" ... ... "Really?" ... ... "OK, I'll be waiting for her call and I'm sending you the video that we have. The video file will be called 'cats are jerks - funny'. Bye Joss."

The window flashed again, Wade answered, "This is Wade Load, how may I help you, Mrs. Possible?" ... "I have one here..." ... "Yes ma'am, switching to speakerphone."

An older woman's voice was heard, no quivering or shake in her speech, a voice used to command.

"Mr. Load, please call me Nana. I have received information that I find disturbing about my son James. The Air Force is having their Security Force pick him up for questioning. I can't get him on the phone and his family is out of town. I was hoping that you and your associates could help me with some discrete information finding."

Wade smiled hugely, for him to be able to provide information to his team was a big win in his books. His smile faded when he remembered what the information was.

"Nana, I have a video that shows James, he is ill and we saw him collapse. It is a couple of hours old," he typed furiously for a few seconds, "I have sent the video to your laptop."

"Nana-sama," Suzie walked up behind Wade and knelt down to be on camera, "My name is Suzie Chen. I am a Team Cobra Ninja from Yamanouchi. I have called for the rest of my team but they may not arrive for two or three days. I propose that we track Dr. Possible to see what hospital they take him to. Then Wade or I will pull a copy of his medical records. If necessary, I will make a covert visit to the facility to see what I can find that isn't recorded on an Internet-connected computer. I feel we need more information before we can logically decide on the proper course of action."

"I am not a patient woman where my children are involved, Ms. Chin. But your suggestion is sound. Please be careful with your investigation. I will have friends look into James's situation as well. I propose that we keep each other up to date on any news that we hear."

"Yes, Ma'am," answered Wade, "I have your calling information and you obviously have mine. I trust that you'll keep Dr. Slim in the loop?"

"I will, perhaps you should too. Best for us to tell each other too many times than not enough."

Nana closed the connection and swiveled around in her chair.

"Sorry G, I was positive that James would fail, at least this time. If his wormhole was detected, how long until someone drops in on us to check it out?"

G was pacing back and forth. Stopping to look at Nana with those strange, large eyes peering out from under the hood of a white sweatshirt with "I want to believe" emblazoned in bold red letters, he whispered,

"I'm guessing forty days, Commander Possible, plus or minus 10."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Hirotaka woke to the sound of crashing surf. Alarmed he sat up and found himself alone in the meeting room. The sleeping mats the boys had used were neatly folded in the corner. A small cube labeled "Natural-Sleep" was playing the sounds of the ocean.

"Sleeping in, Ninja-san?" Heishi, the old Yakuza soldier laughed, placing a tray with a teapot and several covered dishes on the table, "Have some breakfast, you will need the energy to keep up with your Bouyatachi."

"Where are they?" Hirotaka looked at his watch, blanching when he saw that it was past 10 AM.

"Showing Kiri-chan how to be a puppeteer. Don't worry, they are safe and busy working on their goop-maid project."

Hirotaka gulped down some tea and picked up an unsliced sushi roll, eating it like a burrito in a manner that would have impressed Ron and Rufus. At the old man's urging, Hiro grabbed a second roll and taking a cup of tea, he requested,

"Please take me to them, Heishi-san."

He was shown into some sort of assembly room off of the main factory floor. The young woman with the black eye was standing in the middle of the floor like a medieval knight of old with her two squires Jim and Tim helping her with armor and weapons.

Except now, the armor was strips of some sort of black mesh with small copper squares and instead of a sword and shield she held game controllers designed to be used with only one hand.

The Guardian of the 'Little Dudes' didn't know whether to be outraged or laugh. He decided to try a middle ground and pretend that it was the most normal thing in the world to see the boys attaching straps and controllers to a young woman wearing only light cotton panties and a bra.

'Perhaps they are human after all,' he chuckled to himself, seeing that both boys were blushing and touching the young woman as if she was an angel come to bless them with her presence.

"How is your design coming?" he asked as if this was no stranger than a vinegar/baking soda volcano project.

"Great!" said Tim

"Our biggest problem is working around Kiri's bruises," Jim's voice betrayed his anger.

"Their biggest problem is that they are afraid to touch me!" complained the young puppeteer, "These sensors will monitor my movements and transmit them to the syntho-maid. There are feedback transducers to let me know what part of my puppet is being touched. But for them to work, the devices must press against my skin. You are a Ninja, yes? Perhaps you could assist them?"

The twins actually looked relieved at the suggestion.

"Kiri-san, I believe that Jim-san and Tim-san are trained to believe that a woman's body is something to respect and to treat it cavalierly is to disrespect the spirit of the woman it belongs to. They have a sister who is capable of maiming a half-dozen ninja and a temper to match. Did they ask you if they could touch you?" Hirotaka was wondering why she thought that since he was a ninja, that meant he was more comfortable with touching her? Surely, she hadn't spoken to Ayame or Phuong? To the best of his knowledge, Natasha had never been to Tokyo...

"Yes, they asked permission! And I answered them both, 'Yes'!" frustration was evident in her voice.

"May I touch you as needed to adjust this equipment?"

"Yes!"

"If I make you uncomfortable in any way, please say so immediately and I will stop."

The former maid-cafe hostess rolled her eyes. She really did appreciate the respect the young men were showing her. In fact, they were being more courteous than she had ever been treated in her twenty-two years, but really, this was getting to be too much. She was anxious to master the puppeteer skills. She had good customers who had adored her and she missed them. She also had a couple of customers who just might have an unfortunate accident...Well, everybody knew that new technology sometimes had bugs...

"How tight do these need to be?" Hirotaka decided to start at the bottom and work up. He put a finger under a loose strap coiling around a shapely calf down to her ankle.

"Snug, but not so tight as to dent her skin," was his guidance.

Hirotaka quickly adjusted the straps circling the puppeteer with Jim following with a blow dryer. Gently warming the straps made them stick slightly to her skin preventing them from slipping as she moved. He found himself growling under his breath along with Jim as they worked around a large bruise on her ribs under her left breast.

Tim had been working to adjust the padding on her virtual reality helmet so it wouldn't press on the bruise around her eye.

They had just finished and all the electronics had passed diagnostics when the inevitable happened.

"Uh, I need to go to the bathroom, please."

Hirotaka, seeing the boys frozen in panic, gathered up the wiring connected to the sensors and transducers, telling them, "Unhook these cables please and we will be right back..."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

"Name?" the kindly older medic wrote in her clipboard with fingers a little clumsy from the gloves of her bio-isolation suit.

"Erica"

"Last name?"

"Possible"

"What is your relationship to Dr. Possible?"

"I'm not sure. He reassembled me out of leftover parts with some new parts and software." Seeing that the medic had stopped writing to stare at her, the synthodrone continued, "I am a robot."

Surprised, the medic tried reaching for her stethoscope only to realize that it was inside her suit.

"There is something about Dr. Possible's fever I need to tell you," the auburn-haired, not real, woman held up a pair of crudely made tweezers with a very thin, sharp tip. Gripped in the tweezers was a short needle, maybe a quarter of an inch long. "I have reason to believe that this is the source of the virus that is causing the fever. The notes I have found claims that this is a nano-factory producing an artificial virus."

The medic produced a long specimen box to place the tweezers and needle into.

Dropping the tweezers and the needle in the box, Erica warned, "Be careful, the virus nano factory is probably still functional."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Air Force General Fred Falco strode fearlessly into Top Secret Lab #3 with a look of satisfaction that bordered on glee. The lab was deserted, the former occupants transferred to an isolation facility associated with Middleton General, but not on its campus. His technical contractors seized Dr. Possible's computer files and the prototype itself. The greatest discovery was the alien hand that the prototype had retrieved. An honest to God alien hand and this time, those pansy-assed Area 51 bureaucrats couldn't deny him access.

Some days, it was good to be the General.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Dr. Director was working on a stupid budget drill, the kind where upper management wanted a briefing on the mission impact of a ten percent funding cut versus a ten percent budget increase. She was delighted when her secure phone rang interrupting her. Looking at the caller ID, she answered,

"Hello Slim, what can I do for my tall drink of water?"

"Why, 'Lisabeth, you make me blush."

"Oh, did I say that out loud?" she laughed, "I hope you aren't calling to cancel next week?"

"I'd rather shave my mustache than do that, sugar. No, Momma called me and we might have to get my brother James to Japan in a hurry and do it real quiet like. Not sure of the details, but it seems like the military is trying to hang onto him."

The cowboy listened to keys tapping on a keyboard for a few seconds, then a pause.

"Slim, I can't get James out of custody. Something stinks here, the reports I can access all have different reasons. It sounds like they can't get their story straight. I also see reports of major partying at NASA and JPL celebrating some engineering breakthrough that James demonstrated. The rumor is that your brother actually demonstrated faster than light travel. No, James is too hot a property for us to try to retrieve."

"Sorry, I wasn't clear. Mama can get a hold of him, I was just hoping he could catch a ride to Japan on one of your hover jets or something. Just to avoid airport security lines you know."

An emailed request from the Hokkaido Global Justice division caught her eye.

"Can you get your hand on a cattle trailer?"

"You bet," Slim could almost hear the usually serious administrator grin, "What do you have in mind?"

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Hirotaka and Kiri walked back into the room where the twins were supposed to be showing her how to be a puppeteer.

"Wait here, please," the Ninja laid down his armload of cables and, leaving a complaining puppeteer behind, went off in search of the Tweebs. They weren't hard to find, he followed the sound of a cutting blowtorch. Walking into the next factory area, he saw Heishi had just finished cutting a large hole into the ceiling. Below the hole was a partially inflated Tyranitar. Not exactly Godzilla, but certainly a smaller cousin. Jim and Tim were talking to a couple of Yakuza engineers about hydrostatic pressure control or something else that he had never studied.

"Hiro!" shouted Tim in greeting, "Check this out! It can't morph, but by using high-pressure syntho-goop we can make it bigger and much stronger!"

"Gentlemen," Hirotaka spoke sternly, "there is a young woman in the next room waiting for you..."

"Oops," said the twins, "you're doing it correctly, guys, but we gotta go!" Putting actions to words, the pair ran out of the room.

Walking over to one of the engineers he asked in Japanese, ["Isn't this creature too large to fit through the doors? How will you get it out of the building?"]

The engineer laughed, ["You ninja are too subtle, it will make its own door when it is time to leave!"]

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

The astronaut climbed into the pilot's couch and awkwardly buckled in one-handed and set the autopilot to "mothership via safest route".

Her spacesuit, designed to keep her alive in extreme conditions had clamped tightly enough around her forearm to prevent death from either air or blood loss. Automatically injected with painkillers and stimulants, she had staggered back to her scout ship.

After some emergency self-administered first-aid, she dictated a report in case she didn't make it back. The report concentrated on the appearance of a tiny craft that appeared out of nowhere and set off a flare of burning metal. After a delay to make sure that she hadn't been detected, she investigated and had grasped the craft to carry it back to her ship for examination when a portal had appeared above the craft. Trying to hang on to it, her hand had been cleanly sliced off on the edge of the portal. This was definitely a technology that Lowardia needed, they had nothing comparable. Their space warping technology couldn't operate near large masses such as this moon.

Feeling herself start to crash as the stimulants began to wear off, Warmonga pressed the "GO" key and let herself fall into sleep.

Three amateur astronomers recorded a small craft taking off from the moon. The craft used high-temperature thrusters, speculation was that perhaps whoever it was must have been in a hurry to get into lunar orbit. With that information lighting up astronomy chat rooms across the world, seventeen astronomers watched that heat source orbit the moon twice, and then disappear.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Hirotaka changed hands with the Syntho Maid so that he was holding her right hand with his right hand. Moving to the fairly slow salsa rhythm, he used that hand to rotate his partner so she was facing the same direction as he was. Using his left hand to touch her shoulder to stop the spin, he then pulled his right hand back, raising it to spin her twice in a row before dropping it to stop her spin. He was pleased with himself for remembering how to do a 'butterfly spin', Suzie was the real dancer on the team, but she was back in the U.S. He was thinking of what to do next when he heard a thud as a disoriented Kiri fell over.

Hirotaka had been quite pleased with his ingenuity, getting assistance from Heishi, he had hired the services of a master tattoo artist, Mr. Hiroshi. While Kiri practiced having her puppet Syntho-Maid pour and serve tea for him, the elderly artist had worked up designs with Jim and Tim. When Kiri wanted to try something more physical than preparing and serving tea, the Ninja suggested dancing.

Running over to assist the fallen Kiri to get up, he was joined by Jim but not Tim who was pinned down on a chair being inked by the master artist. Jim suggested a break both to let the new puppet master's head stop spinning and for her to have something to drink. Noticing she looked cold, Jim fetched a blanket to drape around her while the Ninja went to the kitchen for a hot drink.

"Once you get used to the sensors and transducers, you'll be able to sit down and do everything," the young inventor told her, "Or we could put a harness on you and suspend you from the ceiling. That way you couldn't fall over. I'm working on a spandex suit that will have the sensors and transducers built in. The suit will use laser data connections so you don't have all these wires hanging off of you." He took a mug of hot chocolate from the Ninja and gave it to the puppeteer adding, "You've been doing great! I think that by the end of the week you'll be able to control three Syntho Maids at the same time."

The young woman sipped her drink. "Three? Maybe as long as I'm not using them to dance." Struggling to turn around without getting tangled up in cables, she said, "Jim-san, can you check the transducers on my upper back? I missed the signal that Hirotaka-san gave to tell me he was going to spin me." Kiri had taken two years of college business economics and knew that requiring three guys to spend an hour putting her puppeteer equipment on wouldn't be economically feasible, but having the two young brothers and their super hunky Ninja friend wrap her in the strips was admittedly pleasant.

The rest of the day was spent without any extra stress for our noble guardian Ninja. While he helped Kiri as a test 'customer' (strictly above-board activities only!), Mr. Hiroshi worked on Tim, and Jim finished putting the sensor strips into a stretchy sweat suit type of garment. After dinner, the Tweebs declared that everyone deserved a break, so they all watched crazy game shows on Japanese TV while Mr. Hiroshi worked on Jim.

As they prepared for bed, Hirotaka had the feeling that while this situation was strange, it was all finally under control...

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Air Force General Falco pushed aside the bottle of ibuprofen and reached for the bottle of Glenfiddich. Normally he would save it for happy drinking, but this was an emergency. This afternoon he was on top of the world, had control of FTL technology in his hands and a body part of an honest to goodness alien. Scoffing at the shot glass, he reached for a tumbler and splashed three fingers of the precious spirits into it.

He had just gotten off the phone with the techs. The prototype had no propulsion system at all. It was just a model of some famous spaceship from the old Captain Constellation TV show with powered wheels and a grappling arm for retrieving objects.

They had no clue as to what generated the wormhole because the computer files were all out of date by months. That damned, arrogant Dr. Possible didn't record his design notes! Dr. Vivian Porter was worse than useless, her work with Dr. Possible focused on some sort of dating metric. Unbelievable!

The early results from the doctors said that the virus that seemed to have given Dr. Possible the inspiration for the breakthrough damaged so much of his mental faculties that the man would be lucky to be able to tie his shoes.

Finishing the contents of the tumbler, he was pouring another when inspiration hit him. Perhaps lightning could strike twice! They had the virus generator, his contractor team had a person with the correct background... La... Lad... Dr. Laura Ladra! Feed her with the virus, let her duplicate his work except that this time they would closely monitor and record her work and stop the virus before it damaged her brain!

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Again, Hirotaka slept longer than his finely tuned Ninja internal clock should have let him and when he woke it was to the sound of the surf. Again, a hugely entertained old Yakuza soldier woke him this time with only coffee.

"Welcome home Master Ninja!" a blue-haired Syntho Maid greeted him at the door to the area where the twins were working, "I hope you slept well," she took his hand and led him to a table.

"Please have a seat and I'll bring breakfast..."

Sitting down, he looked around. He saw Kiri showing a happy grin, dressed in a spandex costume that looked like a cheesy superhero suit complete with a belt and suspenders covered in red LED lights. The crowning touch was a Virtual Reality headset that covered her eyes.

Next to her was a stockier girl dressed in the original sensor/transducer strips. She was curvier than Kiri, but in the deepest recess of his brain, he thought that the spandex puppeteer suit was sexier than the original strips even though almost no skin was exposed. Jim was working on another spandex puppeteer controller suit while Tim was working on a laptop next to the two puppeteers.

Neither boy was wearing a shirt and their upper bodies glistened in the assembly room's bright lights.

"Here is your breakfast, Master Ninja," the blue-haired maid brought a tray with several dishes of food. She almost dropped one, but he caught it in time. Starting on breakfast, he watched a green-haired maid slowly morph into a smallish girl centaur and walk over to Jim, take his right arm, the one that Mr. Hiroshi had inked and rubbed some sort of ointment into his skin, then rubbed ointment on the rest of his torso, possibly just for completeness. Once done, it morphed again, this time into a Medusa, an attractive young woman with wings and snakes for hair. Walking behind Tim, it reached around him to apply ointment to his chest and arms, paying special attention to the design inked onto the young man's skin.

"Just some tea please." Dia Bosu sat next to Hirotaka and spoke to the blue-haired maid.

Hirotaka started, he had been fascinated by the Medusa's snakes and not paid any attention to the approach of the Yakuza boss. It appeared that most of the head snakes were totally computer controlled with only a couple under the sole control of the puppeteer. He was also distracted by the fact that Morphing Syntho Maids were like certain popular fashion dolls sold to young girls - clothes sold separately.

"The Bouyatachi have done better than I expected in creating the Syntho Maids," the Ninja said, watching the Medusa blot excess ointment off of Tim's chest with a small towel.

"Yes, I had agreed to a higher payment than I thought they were worth," the boss chuckled, "I expected to get that money and a little more back by cheating them later. But now, I think I will provide them with a bonus. They seem to think of everything!"

He raised his hand to get their maid's attention,

"Miss! I wish to pay our bill now!"

The blue-haired maid walked up and announced,

"The charge for the two of you is 5,000 yen please."

Then the maid stuck out her tongue. Hirotaka could see it was covered in faint gold spots. Dia Bosu pulled out his credit card and laid it on the maid's tongue, with the contacts on the card touching her tongue. The maid's eyes flashed and she bowed deeply.

"Thank you and come again, Bosu-sama."

He stood up to leave, "As agreed, we will escort you and the Bouyatachi to the Mountain in the morning. My people are shopping now for souvenirs to express our thanks. Is the ointment to help preserve the ink on their skin?"

"I assume so, Bosu-sama."

Laughing, the older man walked away, "Maybe I should get some ink..."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

The normally always cheerful blonde answered the phone with a sleepy,

"Hello?"

"Kin I speak to Jessica please?"

"Speaking."

"Hi, Jessica, this is Joss Possible, I'm Kim's cousin."

"Hi, Joss, I think we met at a picnic last summer," the sleep cobwebs finally cleared from her brain, "Have you talked to Kim lately? Do you know how she is? How about Ron? Is he OK?"

"Haven't talked to cuz lately, but last I heard, she and Ron were looking at changing to a school in Japan to finish out high school. Listen, I need your help, I need to get a hold of some of Ron's friends."

"OK... who?" The blonde listened to Joss for a bit, then burst out laughing, "Sure, I'll grab Tara, we'd be happy to help. Say, you think they'd have an extra seat for Tara and me?"

-Next time on STD 2018-

"Mom! Mom! We had..." exclaimed Tim;

"the best time" exclaimed Jim as both boys ran up and threw their arms around their mother.

"Hirotaka and his friends"

"Are the best! And we helped Kiri and her friend..."

She frowned, "Boys, take off your shirts!" The frown turned into a glare that threatened to incinerate Hirotaka where he stood.

"I have no excuses Sensei," The ninja stood as if for judgment and sentencing.

Both boys took off their shirts. Tim had the image of a snake-like dragon running up one arm, across his chest, and down the other arm. The black dragon was wreathed in red flames and was breathing fire. Instead of looking fierce, the dragon seemed to be happy and almost dancing across her son's body.

Jim's entire right arm down to his wrist was covered in stylized blue water crowded with tranquil green lotus plants, many had flowers of bright colors. Vivid green smiling koi leaped and splashed about in happiness and joy. Both pieces of art were true masterpieces done by a true artist.

"Cool, huh mom. It took Mr. Hiroshi all afternoon to do Tim's" said Jim.

"And he spent the rest of the evening and the next morning doing Jim's!" said Tim.

"Other than spending quality time with a tattoo artist, what have you boys been up to? I signed a contract for you two, by the way."

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

Suzie Chin (Subira Chen) and her partner in Ninja-hood Wanda Wang are all from Sentinel103 and his " **Once Again"** stories.

 **Authors Note:** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and plot bunny wranglers. Note that the details of how you use a credit card with a Syntho Maid generated quite an email exchange and some of the methods talked about wouldn't work in a 'family friendly' cafe...

Published Oct 6th, 2018


	15. Chapter 15

**STD 2018**

"Ronnie, why did you bring me here?" Raven's voice was low and sultry.

"Well, dinner is over, everything is put away and cleaned up and a good boyfriend escorts his girlfriend to her door."

Raven made a point of looking around the blond to the door of the little kitchen where Ron had cooked dinner for them and a few friends. "Thanks. I don't know how I could ever have made the seventy-five feet from the kitchen without you," her voice was a silken purr, "But I do have one observation..."

"What?"

"This is your door, not mine," dark eyes closed as she put her arms around him for a very sweet and flashback-free kiss, "My door is the next one."

"Mmm. So it is. Perhaps we should pause here to gather our strength for the long trek ahead of us..."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

"Ronnie? Time to get up!" Raven pounded on his door. Grinning, she said loudly, "Ohayou, Yori. Why are you carrying that bucket of water?" she paused for effect, then continued, "Holy cow, girl, that water has ice in it! You're gonna freeze Ronnie's keister off!"

The door opened and a panicked blond wearing only boxers looked frantically around. Only seeing Raven in a bathrobe fresh from a shower, "Not funny! But I'm up! I'm..."

Grabbing him for a quick kiss, she said, "Gotta hustle off to start the Dragon Course, Master Sensei asked me to skip the run and come to join you for MMP training with Sensei Tōgai today."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Hirotaka slid the door open and bowed Dia Bosu into the formal meeting room. A long, low table divided the room and Master Sensei knelt on the far side with a red-haired woman wearing Sensei robes on his right side. Yori and Wanda were on the ends, dressed in formal black uniforms without either hood or mask.

Dia Bosu walked to the table and bowed. Hirotaka stepped in the room and stood at attention at one side of the door. Kiri, in her spandex controller suit, stepped in and stood at attention by the other side.

"Kaemon-sama, I wish to thank you for giving us the opportunity to meet and work with Jim and Tim Possible..."

"Mom! Mom! We had..." exclaimed Tim, running in the room interrupting the Yakuza Boss;

"the best time" exclaimed Jim as both boys ran up and threw their arms around their mother.

"Hirotaka and his friends"

"Are the best! And we helped Kiri and her friends..."

She frowned, "Boys, take off your shirts!" The frown turned into a glare that threatened to incinerate Hirotaka where he stood.

"I have no excuses Sensei," The ninja stood as if for judgment and sentencing.

Both boys took off their shirts. Tim had the image of a snake-like dragon running up one arm, across his chest, and down the other arm. The black dragon was wreathed in red flames and was breathing fire. Instead of looking fierce, the dragon seemed to be happy and almost dancing across her son's body.

Jim's entire right arm down to his wrist was covered in stylized blue water crowded with tranquil green lotus plants, many had flowers of bright colors. Vivid green smiling koi leaped and splashed about in happiness and joy. Both pieces of art were true masterpieces done by a true artist.

"Cool, huh mom. It took Mr. Hiroshi all afternoon to do Tim's" said Jim.

"And he spent the rest of the evening and the next morning doing Jim's!" said Tim.

"Other than spending quality time with an artist getting tattooed, what have you boys been up to? I signed a contract for you two, by the way."

"Mom! These aren't real tattoos," started Tim,

"Mr. Hiroshi used art markers, they'll wash off," continued Jim,

"Eventually," quietly finished Tim.

While the Yakuza chief was certainly willing for the Ninja being glared at to take a beating, he decided to move forward with his agenda before any blood was spilled.

"Mrs. Dr. Possible-sensei," he bowed to her, "Please accept these small gifts as a token of admiration for the skill and perseverance you undoubtedly demonstrated in raising such creative sons, or as we affectionately refer to them as the **Bouyatachi."**

Two Yakuza soldiers, one in a suit and tie, the other in a Kimono, brought in two long boxes, placing them on the table in front of Anne.

The first was a Yukata, most likely hand painted silk with the body decorated with Jim's lotus flowers and koi design with Tim's dragon design running up one sleeve, across the back and down the other.

Anne stood so she could hold it up to see the entire print.

"We hope that this simple yukata reflects the joy that your sons have brought to your life."

"It's very lovely, thank you."

"For your husband, we wish to present him with a unique pair of Samurai swords." A soldier opened the second box and pulled out a pair of swords, one long, one shorter. The hilts and scabbard were crystal and the blades inside them reflected rainbow fire.

"Traditionally," the boss continued, "a master Japanese craftsman will fold and forge steel many times to produce the steel of a quality required for a Samurai blade. These blades are crafted from 512 layers of not steel, but metals recycled from the thrusters of an H-11A booster rocket. It may not be a true Samurai blade, but we feel it suits your husband's interests."

Anne carefully folded the yukata and reached for the longer of the two blades.

Drawing the blade from its scabbard, she held it up looking at how the blade reflected the light in the room as if she held a rainbow of fire.

"On behalf of my husband," she slid the blade back into the scabbard, placing it back in the box, "please accept his thanks for a gift that he will treasure always."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Ron, teeth chattering, struggled out of the stream-fed pool. The stream was created by melting snow and although it was sunny, the water was damned cold. Cold enough that Kamiko was wearing a wetsuit while she swam around acting as his personal lifeguard. Ron was wearing a 'French approved swimsuit for public pools'(i.e. a Speedo). Ron turned to maximize his exposure to the sun. Global warming couldn't get here fast enough. The sidekick thought to himself, 'Don't they usually let you put your semen in a test tube **before** they freeze it?.'

"The MMP is almost an intelligent entity," Sensei Tōgai repeated the explanation, "The problem is that you must learn that you do not control it like using the pedals and steering wheel on a car, you must learn how to tell it what you need."

"But what if it doesn't feel like doing what I ask?"

"That would be a tricky conundrum indeed, Stoppable-kun. The scrolls make no mention of the MMP having a sense of humor. Of course, there are missing scrolls..."

The senior physician smiled, "I suggest that you ask the MMP to keep the cold water from touching you and sucking away all your heat."

"How can it do that?" the blond was cold, chattering and confused. He brightened a little as he saw a dark-haired girl picking her way down the hill to join them.

"I have no idea. Let us assume that the MMP has one."

"Sensei, you know what they say about assuming," the blond started to smirk before finding himself flying through the air toward the center of the pool.

Time seemed to slow for the hapless young man. Which was good, because he was not looking forward to hitting the cold water again. Just as the surface of the water came rushing up to him, he felt something laughing in delight. Then he hit the water. Tiny bubbles covered his skin and he bobbed back up to the surface floating higher than usual.

"This is **so cool,** " he thought to himself. The layer of fizz surrounding him not only helped him stay warm, it seemed to make it easier to swim and swim faster.

"Stoppable-kun!" Sensei Tōgai's voice broke into his reverie. The blond stopped and stuck his head out of the water.

"The scrolls suggest that you should be able to share the power!"

Ron then heard, "Hey! Wait! Wait! What are you doing?" and then a shriek as Raven in a black, one-piece racing bathing suit sailed over him to splash into the pool about ten feet away.

She hit the water and immediately popped to the surface. As Ron raced over to her, she cut loose with a stream of invective that was creative and anatomically implausible before starting to swim to the shore.

Quickly reaching her, he, by sheer luck, grabbed her hand. Sensei Tōgai, watching from the shore, was amazed to see the fizz spread over her body. The scrolls were correct. The MMP was easier to use when coming to the aid of someone else than to use for your own advantage. He had been totally guessing about sharing the power but was confident that he could prevent the dark-haired fury from hurting him too badly if he was wrong. They would give the pair fifteen minutes to play in the water before pulling them out for the next exercise.

The physician had spent the last two days trying to get Ron to use the MMP for telekinesis without much effect. The boy could barely make a chopstick move. But, he was betting that the boy could practically make Raven fly like her namesake if he called upon it for her benefit. The ninja doctor thought to himself, 'I wonder if I mention this if it would affect Stoppable-san from being able to access the power for his own benefit?'

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Dia Bosu was pleased with the reception of himself and his gifts. Now for the demonstration.

"Please allow me to demonstrate what your sons have developed," he knelt at the table after getting a nod from Master Sensei. "You may begin, Kiri-kun." Bowing again to Master Sensei, he continued, "Kiri requires several more years of practice to do a proper tea ceremony herself and many of us believe that only a real human can ever do a tea ceremony justice. But for now, let her just serve you simply."

The woman standing by the door put her visor on and started to make small movements with her body and using the controllers in her hands.

Two girls in maid costumes walked in carrying trays with various items on them. One took a teacup and measured a green powder into it, then added hot water from a thermos and used a whisk to mix it. She then put the cup in front of Master Sensei.

Meanwhile, the other maid knelt at the table in front of Anne, asking,

"How does Mistress enjoy her coffee?"

Jim and Tim whispered encouragement to their mom.

"Strong and black please."

The second maid produced a glass cylinder, measured ground coffee into it, added hot water and waited, the perfect picture of serenity.

The first maid continued to make cups of tea and presented them to Wanda and Yori.

Having given the coffee time to steep, the second maid produced a piston and used it to press the grounds to the bottom of the cylinder, poured the coffee into a cup and presented the cup to Anne.

"Thank you very much, dear," she took the cup and tried a sip. She had been carefully observing both maids and at first, thought that both displayed slight muscle tremors but then realized that the two maids were puppets and the girl at the door was rapidly switching control between the two. She had known that her sons were smart, but to produce these puppets in this short amount of time was truly amazing.

The two maids stepped back from the table, quickly undressed, and morphed at the same time. They now appeared as an octopus plus a male Centaur with arms like a spinach-eating sailor, amazing abs and was a creature that definitely never skipped leg day. The new pair of creatures served small pastries to go with the hot drinks.

Finally, the pair morphed into leopards that walked over to the girl at the door and laid down at her feet. She removed her visor and bowed to the room. She walked up to Anne, scooped up Jim and Tim into a hug, and kissed both on the cheek.

"Your sons have freed me from a miserable existence as a hostess at a maid cafe. Now I can delight my favorite customers using these magical forms. But no longer can bad customers abuse me."

Anne looked carefully at the young woman's face. The concealer that she wore didn't quite hide the bruise around her eye. Seeing the woman flinch when Anne reached up as if to touch her face, the mother and physician said, "What will you do?"

One of the leopards morphed into a Medusa, a shapely, attractive, winged, young woman with head snakes coming down to her waist. The snakes were writhing and hissing in anger, displaying two-inch-long fangs from mouths dripping with saliva.

"Oh" commented Anne. She was torn between a mother's desire for vengeance and a physician's desire for justice without leaving bodies all over the room.

A young man slipped past the Medusa, nimbly avoiding her hissing snakes. He hurried to Master Sensei's side, knelt and passed the Headmaster a note.

"I ask your pardon for the interruption, Bosu-sama," the old man said before announcing, "Team Cobra has been activated. You leave in one hour. Contact Suzie for loadout. Good luck."

Wanda and Yori got up and quickly walked out through the door following Hirotaka who had already disappeared down the hall.

The Yakuza chief looked at the red-haired mother who had just gone pale. Standing, he said,

"It appears that we have come at a most inopportune time. We will visit another time, perhaps..."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

"Stoppable-kun! Get control! Put the rocks down!" Sensei Tōgai spoke loudly and waved his hands trying to get his student's attention. The blond was softly glowing blue, floating about six inches above the ground with an uncharacteristic cruel expression on his face. He held his arms outstretched with ghostly blue streamers flowing from his fingers. He was at the center of a swirling vortex of rocks, the largest was roughly four feet in diameter, most were smaller. In the orbit of rocks was Raven floating unafraid among the debris.

"Stoppable-san, please," Kamiko, dodging a few rocks, ran up to the scary young MMP master, "Slowly drop the rocks, but hold your love up. Please, Ron-san," she put the palms of her hands on his chest, "Come back to us. I'm afraid that you are going to be lost to the MMP..."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

"Mom? What's wrong?" Tim and Jim noticed their Mom was seriously distressed.

"Master Sensei, please tell me that I am wrong to assume that Suzie isn't still in Middleton and didn't stay there to keep an eye on James," Anne spoke softly with a touch of fear in her voice.

"Anne Sensei," the Headmaster used his calming voice, the one he had used many times in the past when briefing young Ninja on a dire situation, "Suzie remained in Middleton partly to keep an eye on James, partly to monitor people looking to take Kimberly into custody and partly to provide backup to Wade Load until we can form a new team around him. She was most concerned about the young tech genius as most of his friends and people who would run to his aid are in Japan."

Seeing that he wasn't speaking to a young Ninja, but a true Surgeon/Sensei with a core of steel and nerves to match, he continued,

"Suzie and the rest of Team Cobra are among my most trusted students. At a request from any of them, I would start marshaling the resources they asked before I inquired as to why they wanted them. Suzie has asked for her team to join them as soon as can be arranged."

Trying for a touch of levity, he continued, "She did not ask for support from our more combat oriented teams like Team Panther and Team Twelve, so I believe that the problem is less than Armageddon." Seeing the woman didn't smile even a little, he motioned them toward the door and finished, "Now that the resources she has requested are started on their way to her, let's go ask her what the problem is."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

"Wade, play the video again, please." Anne's voice was without emotion.

... "James? James! Honey, don't leave us! We love you, honey, stay with us..." The scientist sagged in the woman's arms and she carried him off screen as easily as if he was a small child. The video went blank and was replaced with the words "Connection lost".

"Wade, did you run a thermal scan," started Tim,

"To check for body temperature and respiration thermal plumes?" finished Jim, worried about his mom who had sat emotionless since she saw the video the first time.

"Yes, I did," replied the young tech genius, "The temperature and its uniformity over her body are all wrong, I would guess a synthodrone except I don't see evidence of syntho-goop circulation.

"Dad was thinking about replacing the goop with a gel," started Tim,

"At least that is what we are guessing, 'cause we wouldn't have any real way of knowing," backpedaled Jim seeing the look their mom was directing their way.

"You knew Dad was building a synthodrone?" Raven's growl dripped with approaching physical menace.

"We, uh, guessed when we checked out the site at the lake and saw that someone had recovered Eric's body but not his cool bike and..." Tim's voice trailed off as he noticed that Ron's arms tightened around their sister's waist as a cautionary restraint.

"Shutting up now," declared Jim.

"Please continue with your findings," Master Sensei addressed the camera on top of the secure video-conferencing screen.

"After I saw the video, I sent messages asking for the rest of Team Cobra to be sent for assistance. Within minutes of my request, personnel including James Possible were transferred to an isolation ward associated with Middleton General."

"While they were being put into the ambulances, we could hear the chatter of the CDC and medics," Wade read from an actual sheet of paper, "It appears that Mr. Dr. Possible is suffering from a brain virus but he is not really contagious, the contagion danger is from something they picked up from the Moon. The Air Force Security Force is involved somehow."

"We received a call from Amanda Possible-sama," Suzie said, "she is planning on using her resources to get Dr. Possible free from the people who hold him. She asked if we could assist and I told her we would be ready to assist in two days as soon as Team Cobra has assembled."

"Suzie-san," Master Sensei asked, "should we send more resources? Perhaps Team Panther and Team Twelve?"

The young Ninja hid a brief laugh behind her hand. "No, Master Sensei, that would not be advisable."

"Why? If Team Cobra is just the four of you, please don't take offense, but you are just young people..." Anne argued, "Maybe I should come back to the States, maybe with Kimmy and Ronald..."

"Anne-sensei, we are at least as old and experienced as your daughter and she has saved the world on several occasions..."

"But this is James..." Anne's voice displayed her anguish, "I knew he was sick and I left him there..."

"Sensei, We will bring your husband to you safe and sound. Amanda-sama has resources to quietly extract him, we will provide eyes and ears in Middleton to assist her. Your brother in law Slim-san has a plan to transport him to Japan. If this were, say North Korea, and we had to extract him with no help and no concern of collateral damage or casualties among his captors, then Team Panther and Team Twelve could carve a path through a thousand defenders and safely get him to you."

"Please Sensei, it is late in your day, but early in ours. Let us gather information and we will get together first thing in your morning tomorrow and tell you what we have found out and we can plan from there. Is that acceptable?"

"Yes, it is. Thank you, Suzie." The doctor looked defeated.

"Master Sensei, One last thing, I am creating a Team Indigo based around Wade-san and Katsumi-san as you have instructed. Perhaps it would be wise to have Team Orange drop in to back them up. I believe that they are currently running exercises in Mexico City? They would be most helpful in training by example."

"That is an excellent idea, Suzie-san. I will contact them immediately."

A few quick pleasantries and the conference call was concluded.

Master Sensei excused himself saying that he had other duties that he must attend to.

The Mother and all her children sat in the growing gloom of the evening.

"Raven, are you still angry with your father about Ronald?"

The dark young woman held her hands out. They were trembling.

"Mom, even if I was, I'd be on a plane now to rescue him. Except I don't know how fast I am deteriorating, so it's best to leave the hero work to those who can do it." Tears filled her eyes.

"Hi, Possible clan and Ron!" Elsa and Nyx appeared, gathered them up and moved everyone to their dorm, saying that they would have dinner there and that they had set up a pair of rooms for Anne and her sons to use, claiming that for tonight, the Possible clan should be together.

The walk across the serene campus soothed her Wife/Mother's soul. She started to believe that things would work out, people almost as good as Ron and Kimmy (but more of them) would bring James to her, she would either find a good surgery team in Tokyo or fly her team here and she would fix her children and heal her husband. She was undecided whether to be angry or flattered that the synthodrone her often clueless husband had created was of her. Or to be exact, a twenty year younger version of her.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

James stared at the schematics, specifically at the power input coupling design. "Dr. Ladra, I'm sorry, but I can't remember! Are you sure it worked?"

Dr. Laura Ladra was a dark curvy woman that seemed to be sweating a little. "Dr. Possible, I saw the recordings of the experiment where you sent it to the moon! We found items left on the moon by several moon missions in your lab! But the prototype has nothing that looks like a propulsion drive installed in it!

"Oh. That I remember. The FTL is basically wormhole technology and the wormhole generator is built into my lab bench. It would be silly to put the only wormhole generator into the prototype itself, how would I recover it to fix it if it broke on the moon? That also gave me the mainframe support of the Space Center computers for the calculations that I needed to create the ends of the wormhole in relative space."

Looking concerned, he handed the scientist a glass of iced water, "Dr. Ladra, are you feeling OK?"

She drank the water eagerly, "I'm a little feverish. It's just some allergy to something my East Coast body isn't used to." She gathered up notes and schematics and put them back into a courier bag.

"Is there anything I need to know to access your wormhole generator? Any traps? Passwords?"

"No passwords, no traps that I can remember. If you feel around under the edge of the top of the lab bench, you'll feel a lever. Pull it and the top will raise up to give you access to the generator. Darn it, this memory loss is no garden party! Did I really demonstrate that faster than light travel is possible? I wish I could remember it..."

"What have your doctors told you?"

James closed his eyes and sighed, "It doesn't look good, they're worried that the virus hasn't totally stopped damaging areas yet."

A flash of concern showed in the dark woman's eyes.

"Try not to worry, James. You've got the best doctors looking at you." She shouldered her bag and walked out the door with her Air Force Security right behind her.

"But there is only one doctor I want. My god, what if I start to forget her? Have I already forgotten things?" James desperately tried to remember holding his wife in his arms, the feel of her body pressed against his.

A strong hand gripped his shoulder, "I will remind you if you forget. I will be your memory of your love for her."

Vivian looked at Erica trying to comfort her colleague. 'Yeah, that's going to be interesting to see..." she thought to herself.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

"That wasn't too bad, was it, Wade-san?" Suzie and Wade walked up to his front door, just coming back from a trip to scout out the facility where James was being held.

"But I was spotted!"

"Dr. Vivian Porter gave you a little wave from down a hall. She did not say your name. Does she know that you work with Team Possible?"

"Yes, but..."

"But nothing Wade-san. Your cover was that of a person helping his friend deliver flowers. I believe that her seeing you alerted her to the fact that friends are concerned about her and the people she is with. It will work out fine, trust me," opening the front door, she announced, "Tadaima!" and was surprised not to hear Wade's mom, but a deep man's voice reply instead,

"Okaerinasai!"

Stepping into the house with caution now, she heard Wade say,

"Hi, Dad!"

She found herself face to face with a giant of a man, at least six feet, five inches in height and the muscles, but none of the fat of a sumo wrestler. The smiling giant held out a shovel-sized hand, saying,

"My name is Lontaine, I'm Wade's Dad. You must be Suzie Chin, visiting from Japan."

"Yes, I am pleased to make your acquaintance, sir," as hard as she tried, the Ninja couldn't manage to not stare. She gave his hand a courteous shake, his grip was gentle and careful.

Laughing, he continued, "Yes, Wade is my son, flesh of my flesh to be exact. The boys in my family are famous for getting a large growth spurt around the time they turn sixteen or seventeen."

"Oh, son, you have a visitor. A young woman named Katsumi Cullen arrived about an hour ago. She looked pretty jet-lagged so your Mom set your holo-room to the Japanese Bathhouse simulation, put her stuff in the guest room in the basement and turned her loose to clean up and take a nap before dinner."

Looking carefully at Suzie, he continued, "Son, why don't you go down and see if she needs anything? Miss Chin? May I have a word with you?"

"Certainly, Mr. Load."

"Have a seat," he waved her over to the couch while he sat on an oversized recliner.

"Miss Chin," the large man leaned back in the chair, most likely trying to be less intimidating. Suzie appreciated the gesture although the young Ninja was hard to intimidate, especially given that she was carrying her favorite weapons.

"My son is a good boy on his way to becoming a good man. He is beyond my capability to really understand how book smart he is. But emotionally, he is pretty much typical for his age. I am concerned about a young woman, who his mother tells me is adorable as a box of kittens, moving into this house where the two of them will be unsupervised most of the day. I feel like this has been sprung on his mother and me without telling us or asking our permission."

"I apologize, Mr. Load." Suzie realized that having to gain an ally could be more intimidating that defeating a foe. Especially when you had not done the proper preparation. She continued,

"My job initially was to assist the Possibles with their daughter Kimberly after she had a mission go, as you say, terribly south. Because of the actions of persons I do not wish to discuss now, she has fled to Japan and I hope that she finishes out her high school there with her friend, Ronald Stoppable."

"Yeah, Wade mentioned that Ronald's family was moving to Japan."

"Wade, as you know, is a critical part of Team Possible. My assignment was to remain in Middleton for the time being to assist and protect Wade because the rest of his team is at best fifteen to twenty hours away. As a long-term solution, we are forming a new team around Wade for protection and to assist him in his efforts. Katsumi was sent over as an initial new teammate because of her computer and database skills. Her combat skills are average at best."

"Average among what population?"

"The students within two years of her age at our school."

"Yamanouchi? The school that was founded by a warrior who carved a monastery from a mountain using only a sword that uses Mystical Monkey Power?"

"You know about Yamanouchi?"

"I taught Wade how to search student rolls at unknown schools."

"Ah, I see," Suzie didn't really see but wanted to press on and think about the apparent paradox later.

"Our school's headmaster wanted to send her to America to work with Wade as sort of a 'Year Abroad' experience as a student. Events have arrived that make Wade more important than we had anticipated, so Wade's team, which has the designation 'Team Indigo', is needed now."

"So, the three of you will take care of business?"

"No. The three other members of my team are on their way here. My team will provide security and coordination. I expect eight members of Team Orange to arrive in a day, two at the most. They are experts in computer hacking and skills in all manners of vehicles."

"How much danger is my family in, Miss Chin?"

Suzie smiled a lovely, bright smile, "With a dozen of the best Ninja that Yamanouchi has to offer hanging around, your biggest danger is slipping in the bath."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

A survey specialist named Warmonga slept as her tiny craft flew close to Jupiter's clouds as it scooped up hydrogen and helium for reaction mass. At the same time, it used the planet's massive gravity well to slingshot it into the correct direction as well as pick up speed. Rocketing toward a rendezvous with its mother ship, the specialist missed a truly spectacular sight of multicolored clouds and storms that were large enough to swallow some planets.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

General Falco nodded to his security men as he entered the Middleton Space Center's Secret Lab #3. Stopping at Dr. Possible's desk, he looked at the picture on his desk. A family picture, it showed his wife and four kids.

Scoffing he thought, 'Nesting and baby chicks are a waste of time when you have a nation to defend.' Walking over to the lab bench, he saw that its top was raised exposing the internal workings of the wormhole generator that was the basis for the FTL prototype's success. All the wires and tubing were neatly arranged into bundles. He approved of that. It was an indication of the orderly mind of Doctor Possible. At least until the virus drove his mind from mediocrity to genius then at last to destruction.

Dr. Laura Ladra worked at a workstation with dual monitors. Looking over her shoulders, he saw pages of text, no equations, no diagrams. Puzzled, he walked up behind her and started to read over her shoulder...

"Pushing the blonde down on the couch, he started kissing him passionately. The Blond returned that passion, pressing his lips hard enough against his lover to taste the metallic tang of Butthead's braces. Both could feel the steel hard rods of the other's desire. Beavis reached down..."

The General was nearly speechless, "Doctor Ladra! Explain yourself! What the tarnation are you doing?"

The doctor turned to look at him, tears of joy flowed down a face flushed with fever,

"General, I understand it all now, Beavis and Butthead weren't a symbol of degenerate youth, they were the symbol of misunderstood youth, desperate for love and belonging." Flipping through dozens of pages in the editor window, she stopped on one and continued, her excitement rising,

"See, here's the start. The boys are at a magic toy shop and start wrestling over a plush of Princess Evening Sprinkle arguing over whether her horn is a schlong or a schledium. The Spirit of Sprinkle pulls them into The Pony Zone where they are introduced to the Mystic Power of Friendship. There they learn true friendship and belonging. Finally, they admit their deep and abiding love for each other."

Wiping the tears from her face, she blurted out, "True love is just so beautiful." She turned back to look at the monitor.

"But what about the wormhole generator?" the general nearly grabbed her, but the fear of catching the virus made him back up instead.

"Oh, that. I have no clue how it works. I wasn't even able to figure out how Possible was powering it. I talked to him this morning, but he doesn't remember anything about that."

As General Falco strode from the room, reaching for his cell to call for the men in the bio-isolation suits to carry away this doctor, he felt a tiny pang of regret and sorrow that nobody had been there with stories like this when he was a young man torn with doubts and anguish of his true nature. Maybe he wouldn't have been so alone, forced to suppress his true nature. Stomping on that tiny pang of regret, the General wondered if Possible would remember if he was motivated more strongly...

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

Suzie Chin (Subira Chen) and her partner in Ninja-hood Wanda Wang, along with Team Panther, Team Twelve, and Team Orange are all from Sentinel103 and his " **Once Again"** stories.

 **Mea Culpa** There is roughly a 12-hour difference between Japan and the United States. That means that early morning in one spot is early evening in the other. So don't pay too much attention to the concept of simultaneity in this story.

 **Authors Note:** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and plot bunny wranglers.

Published Oct 15th, 2018

Words I didn't really need to know but learned anyway: Schlong, Schledium, Schlort


	16. Chapter 16

Wade did his best to move down the hall making enough noise so that he wouldn't startle an awake Ninja, but not wake up a sleeping Ninja. Actually, he had no idea how to do that, but his heart was in the right place. First, he walked to the end of the hall to the holo-room, opened the door a crack and called softly, "Hello? Anyone here?"

Hearing nothing, he opened the door and stepped in. The air was warm and humid with a cool breeze providing contrast. Looking around, he noticed that whoever had been here had tweaked his simulation. The main change was that the pool area had been expanded with an illusion, as he saw several cartoon characters relaxing in the illusory half of the pool. The walls were now open on two sides with a garden at one side and a snowy peaked mountain visible from the other side.

He smelled a pretty floral scent, probably a shampoo or body wash. Must be his guest, he and his dad preferred spice based 'sports' scents and his mom liked a citrus/fruity scent.

Going back down the hall to the other end, he noticed the guest room door was open. Standing in the doorway, he looked in to see a sleeping girl laying on her side facing the door, with a hand tucked under her pillow and a comforter pulled up past her shoulder. He recognized her from their previous video conversation. She was pretty, not Internet beautiful maybe, and that thought made Wade feel a little embarrassed because his parents had stressed that he shouldn't be shallow and certainly not judge people on appearances.

He padded quietly back to his bedroom/ops center and pulled out a cold bottle of water and a sports drink from his mini-fridge. Sneaking back to the guest room he quietly put the drinks on coasters on the small table by the bed and slipped off to go back upstairs.

Katsumi watched him leave through slitted eyes. Relaxing her grip on the short baton she had under her pillow, she thought, "What a thoughtful young man…and kind of a cute butt." and drifted back to her semi-sleep napping. She had no problem with sleeping with a weapon under her pillow. Even though she had seen stories on the Internet of American boys taking liberties with female guests, even their female friends(!), Raven had vouched for the young tech genius. Still, as Wanda had pointed out many times, 'You should always carry weapons, particularly in places where weapons are not allowed.'

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Warhok walked down the narrow passageway of the Lowardian _Survey Ship Carterista_. Coming to Med Bay Number 2, he slid the door open and slipped in. Laying on the bed was the woman of his dreams, dark green hair spilling over her pale green skin. Being of the warrior class, her tall, muscular body looked a little cramped on the bunk.

"She is doing well, Warhok," the small medic said, "we have replenished her fluids and have accelerated healing on the stump of her right arm. Unfortunately, she is one of the small percentage of the population that can't accept regenerated body parts. We don't have the capability to install an artificial hand here. That will have to wait until we get back to the Empire."

The body on the bunk stirred. The woman opened her eyes and Warhok's heart leaped as sparkling red irises surrounded by a golden sclera looked back at him with sleepy warmth and love.

"My love, where am I? This isn't a capital ship; the bunks are too small."

"You're on a survey ship, 'Monga," he replied, reaching out to gently run his fingers through her hair, "something told me to come and find you. Your lander was only about a quarter of the way back when I found you. I'll have you back to the fleet doctors as soon as I can."

"Don't be silly 'Hok," she sat up, only wobbling a little, and held up her bandaged stump, "the medics here are sufficient to bio-weld a hook on the end of this. We need to get back to the planet. They have a wormhole technology that is unbelievable. I have seen with my own eyes a wormhole small and stable enough to use for individual warrior transport. The lander has technical data that will let us find the endpoints for the one I saw personally. 'Hok, you can check the videos.

The wormhole I saw appeared to be an open doorway into a room inside a building on a planet and I was on its moon. Think of what that would mean to deploy an assault squad! You could deploy troops directly to the inside of a building, no need for using an assault shuttle to fight through defenses!"

"Love, you don't have all your strength back yet, surely you want to be on the discovery team, you need time to…"

"Don't give me that 'but love, you need time to recover' crap, 'Hok," she interrupted with a growl, "give me a day with an engineer and a medic and I'll have a combat hook installed on this stump." She softened her glare to something more smoldering, "Then give me a night with food and drink and your body pressed against mine and I will be ready for anything…"

She stopped and stared carefully at her battle mate who was starting to show a swert eating grin.

"Wait, we're not on the way back to the fleet, are we?"

His grin got even larger as he admitted, "No. We are in orbit around the water planet running scans for profitable resources. Your notes were very thorough and well written. We were able to identify the spot on the planet where the wormhole you observed terminated. We have put challenge marks on it plus another around your gauntlet. Someone managed to activate the distress beacon making it easy to find."

She threw her arms around the giant warrior in a hug that would have crushed a weak man of Earth.

"What did I ever do to deserve you?" she asked.

"You made my life complete." he replied, adding, "I sent a message probe to the Imperial Prize Board with your recordings and notes. That will register your claim to the prize money from the wormhole technology when we retrieve and reverse engineer it."

Even missing one hand, she managed to nearly climb up the towering mass of muscle,

"How can I ever express my gratitude?" she murmured.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

The sun was setting when Anne walked out of Tokyo General Hospital. Two young toughs in dark suits, ties, and sunglasses appeared and walked in step with her, one on each side.

"You seem angry, Gekai-sama" (A/N: Gekai is Japanese for "Surgeon")

She tried and failed to conceal her anger, "I am. I did a surgery today. It was a hard one with almost no time to prepare, but I did it. The young man will recover fully."

"You know that?"

"Yes!", the redhead rubbed the bridge of her nose with her fingers, "the problem was a leaking artery, maybe from a blow to the head, but certainly from a weakness that has always been there. After fixing the problem, I had the circulatory system of his head scanned looking for other weak spots. There is always a chance that the scan missed one, but the odds are greatly in his favor. The problem was the surgery team."

"Were they incompetent?"

"Their skills were not the problem, it was their paternalistic, misogynistic attitudes! They kept telling me that I needed to do things differently! The anesthesiologist kept asking me if I was on my period! The surgical assistant kept suggesting that perhaps I should stop the surgery and let a more experienced surgeon handle it later! After I doublechecked my work and closed, I was summarily dismissed and told that experienced surgeons would take over his care!"

"Dia Bosu will not be pleased to hear that you were treated with less than full respect."

"Why would he care? I came here looking for a team to help with my children, I'm surprised that he even heard about it."

"Did you not know that your patient was his nephew? Did it not seem odd that you were asked to do this on such short notice? Dia Bosu spent time on the Internet looking at your qualifications and reputation. He decided that you were the surgeon to help his favorite sister's son."

They stopped at a traffic light and waited for the walk indication.

Anne wondered if she was out of her league here. On the one hand, she guiltily thought that the Yakuza could improve patient care by knocking a few heads together. On the other hand, was she expected to succeed or else? There were politics back at Middleton General, but nothing like this. She stopped wool-gathering when she noticed that she had unconsciously followed her escorts across the crosswalk. She realized she had no idea where she was going, she had been so angry that when she was finished, all she wanted to do was get out of that place.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"We are going to join your sons for dinner. Have you ever eaten okonomiyaki?

"I don't believe so."

"Please allow us to treat you after we link up with the Bouyatachi.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

The syntho-maid demonstration that was held in a large auditorium started out impossibly cute. The twins were standing in the back, wearing slacks and long-sleeved black dress shirts that completely covered their 'ink'. On the stage was a large earthen mound with a miniature storefront. In front of the storefront were two, well, you couldn't call them **naked** mole rats because they were wearing adorable little maid outfits.

Rufus walked along the storefront and was intercepted by the two maids who chattered at him. Rufus wiggled into some sort of harness and followed the maids into a naked mole rat sized door. A large screen over the earthen mound showed a first-person view from a camera on his harness. The first view from Rufus was of a little room with places to sit and plates with cheeses and other snacks for the maids to serve him.

A narrator spoke in Japanese, and the crowd politely laughed. After a moment during which Rufus was served cheese, there was the sound of a klaxon and the earthen mound settled with a few small sprays of dust.

The narrator spoke more dramatically now, the audience murmured in awe as the two maids morphed slightly to increase the size of their shoulders and claws. The pair of syntho-mole-rat maids sniffed around the collapsed wall and selected a good spot to start digging. Naked mole rats are born to dig and the syntho-mole-rats were almost as good. Rufus and his camera followed the diggers as they clawed through dirt and around pipes and rocks too large to move.

Tim pointed to the screen, "See Mom, this demo is to show the syntho-maid's ability to perform in search and rescue situations."

Jim added, "They are leaving a fine copper wire behind so the rubble can't block communications."

Tim pointed out, "They're radiation resistant, don't need oxygen, they're immune to poison gasses, and can operate sixteen hours before a recharge."

The naked mole rats, both real and syntho, dug out through the side of the earthen mound to a round of general applause from the audience. They had carried out a small doll representing a rescued victim. The two puppeteers stood and bowed.

Rufus slipped through the crowd and scrambled up on Tim's shoulder.

"Dinner!" he squeaked.

Fifteen minutes later, they found themselves in a small okonomiyaki shop with the Yakuza soldier making his grandmother's recipe and telling them entertaining stories of his childhood. To this soldier, okonomiyaki was a savory pancake filled with cabbage, shrimp, onions, and mushrooms served with various condiments.

The food was good, the company pleasant and yet Anne kept worrying about her beloved James and how he was doing. And…what was the story about the synthodrone that looked like her from twenty years ago…

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

A short, impossibly skinny person walked up and knocked on Amanda Possible's office door.

"Come in."

"Commander Possible, it appears that I was wrong about the amount of time that we had."

"G, I am guessing that we don't have more time than you thought?"

A short set of breathy barks came from under the hood of the navy-blue sweatshirt emblazoned with the words, 'I blamed Aliens before it was cool', "No Commander, we need to extract your son earlier than we planned. I fear tomorrow will be too late."

"What do you know about them, G?"

"Not much Commander. Just that this is not the right time for Earth to be noticed."

"I thought you were a student of history."

"I am. Ancient Earth history, not Ancient Lowardian history."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

"Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends," Wade rubbed his hands together and flexed his fingers in anticipation.

"I am ready Wade-san," his partner sat behind him. They had rearranged his monitors and added a couple more to make nearly a complete circle with two chairs in the middle. This allowed them to cover different monitors for efficiency or collaborate on the same screen if needed.

They started entering information into systems that they had broken into before breakfast. Several they logged into using credentials given to them by Nana. Both of the young hackers considered that cheating but used them anyway.

Katsumi paused to connect to a Team Orange operative. Talking on her headset, she said, "Inshuru-san? Proceed to pick up the livestock. The plan has accelerated, take them straight to Oklahoma City for loading."

Wade reached back and tapped Katsumi on the leg without looking, "Katsumi-san, check this out. Some sort of orbital laser has burned designs into the grass in a couple of spots."

Katsumi spun around and checked the video from a drone that was flying high over Middleton. A letter that looked like a stylized 'M' or 'W' had been written in the grass just behind the main building of the Middleton Space Center. A second appeared on an abandoned runway about a hundred miles to the east.

"What is special about those spots, Wade-san?"

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

The Yakuza boss known as Dia Bosu stood nervously at a door with cherry inlay and polished brass hardware. Hearing "Enter" in reply to his knock, he opened the door and walked in.

Striding quickly into the room, he dropped to one knee and bowed his head,

"Alexander-sama, I wish to report on the work done by the sons of James and Anne Possible-sensei."

"My old friend, get up and take a seat. I understand that your news is unexpectedly good." The senior manager smiled at the older lower level manager. Dia Bosu was old-fashioned in many ways, but his loyalty to his people and the Yakuza was the stuff of legends. As was his ability to find ways to simultaneously avoid violence and maximize profits.

"Yes, Alexander-sama. In short, what I saw as a minor opportunity to take over the hostess business in Tokyo has turned out to be an incredible business opportunity. I predict that with respect to revenue, it will surpass all our other profit centers in Japan."

"I have seen the syntho-maids up close in a personal demonstration by Kiri-chan herself." The senior leader smiled, he had thought that the hostess cafes were silly tourist traps, but he had followed his subordinate's recommendation to check them out. The hostess Kiri had become a favorite of his. He tried to stop in once a week for tea and to chat about what she thought was interesting in the world. He found that settled his mind more effectively than an entire afternoon of meditation. And helped keep him apprised of new trends in society.

"Have you thought of applications in areas such as elder care?"

"You still need puppeteers."

"Not if you have one of the foremost robotic Artificial Intelligence experts in the world on the run and looking for sanctuary. We have reason to believe that Dr. Vivian Porter will arrive here in Japan sometime in the next week. Simple software for assisting the elderly should be easy for her to write."

"And the economics?"

"The morphing synthodrones are almost entirely self-assembling given one small processor/interface module and several gallons of goop. The **Bouyatachi** have already agreed to license their goop formula and designs very inexpensively. We used a sex-doll company called **Silicon Joy** to make the prototypes. That company's engineers estimate that it will cost no more than one-hundred thousand yen to manufacture one syntho-helper. That assumes that the Artificial Intelligence Processor Module is no more than ten-thousand yen each and that Dr. Porter's software can be licensed at no more per unit than twice what we are paying the Bouyatachi. Maintenance is just a matter of the occasional software update and replacing worn out goop once a year - no more than fifteen thousand yen at fifty percent profit."

 **(A/N: there is roughly one hundred yen to the dollar)**

Dia Bosu could see the excitement grow in his boss's eyes.

"My friend, we can save Japan. We Japanese are a dying race. Why would any girl in this day and age want to grow up to marry and have children when the traditional role of the daughter is to remain at home and take care of both sets of aging parents? Now, our young women can have children and careers with the syntho-helpers assisting with both aged parents and young babies."

Reaching over to pour his subordinate a cup of tea, he continued, "The hand that brings grandmother her tea and rocks the cradle rules the world. I want that to be our hand."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Joss slid down from the passenger side of the sleeper cab of the semi with the attached cattle trailer. She walked over to where Jessica and Tara were waiting by a pedestrian gate.

"Ron's buddies can squeeze through that gate? Must not be as big as I reckoned..." Joss said, "Well, lead me to them, please and thank you."

"Ron's buddies aren't the neatest housekeepers," Tara said as both girls shuddered, "we already hunted up some."

She opened the gate and a cockroach the size of a large dog walked through stopping between the two girls.

"Joss, this is Roachie," she continued as both blondes reached out and gave its feelers a pet.

The ground shook and Joss turned to see a cockroach larger than any bull she had ever seen had jumped down from a stone wall with a second equally huge one peering down at her.

"And this is Lenard," Jessica laughed at the look on Joss's face. Reaching out to stroke a feeler about the same diameter as her wrist, she continued,

"Boys, this is Joss Possible, cousin of Kim and friend of Ron. She is going to take you to visit them. Would you like that?"

Both insects made hissing and clicking noises.

Roachie did a little dance that made its butt wave around.

' _Daddy, did you know what you sent me to pick up? Or does 'Lisabeth have a sense of humor?_ ' she thought before saying, "OK, Well let's see if Lenard and his buddies will fit on this rolling ranch we got here. Are you planning on coming?"

"Yes, Suzie asked us to go until they can link up with Ron or Rufus. She thought that they would trust us more than strangers." Leaning over and speaking privately, Jessica whispered, "I think they freak out Yori a little."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

The two medics hopped out of the ambulance and walked into the lobby of the Middleton General Infectious Disease Isolation Unit.

They showed their identification and papers,

"Good Morning, I'm Susan Jones and this is Anthony Jones, we're here to transport the Possible group to the main hospital."

The clerk stared at the two people with a raised eyebrow, Susan was blonde, in her twenties and had a stocky bodybuilder physique. Anthony was black, in his fifties and looked like an NFL linebacker. Both wore dark aviator sunglasses.

"No relation," Susan said in response to the raised eyebrow.

The clerk typed on her console, "I was wondering when they were going to cut them loose, the epidemiology group cleared them as non-contagious two days ago." Laughing, she added, "It's like someone wants to keep them out of sight like in some spy movie."

Undeterred by the serious expressions on the two medics, she dropped her voice to a whisper, "I think the man isn't all there in the head, I'm glad you are taking him to the main hospital for treatment."

An orderly was called and soon with the orderly and the two medics each pushing a wheelchair, they went down a hall through sliding powered doors to get to the isolation wards.

Knocking on the door with "Possible" and "Porter" marked on folders sitting in a holder on the door, they heard, "Come in."

Entering the room, they saw a man with graying temples who looked pale and a little shaky was sitting across a card table from a blonde woman who was dealing playing cards face down. Sitting cross-legged on the floor by a sunny window was a young red-haired woman holding several power cords in her lap.

"Good morning, doctors, Miss Possible," said the orderly in a cheery voice, "how are the memory exercises going?"

"Just fine Fred," Dr. Porter replied, "short-term memory is excellent, long-term memory seems to be recovering."

"Except I can't remember a lot of the past," grumbled James. He looked at the two medics,

"Are you here to move us to another facility?"

Jones (the blonde one) replied, "Yes, Dr. Possible, we are. There is a specialist that really wants to see you as soon as we can get you to her."

"Have I met her?"

"I believe you have, sir. Her name is Mrs. Dr. P."

As tears appearing in the haggard face of the graying scientist, he said, "Let's not keep her waiting, then. I have nothing to pack, I'm ready to go."

"What about me?" the redhead sitting on the floor asked.

"Our paperwork says to bring all three of you. How long until you are ready to go, Miss?" asked the other medic.

Erica stood up, reached under the hem of her shirt and pulled loose the power cords. She unplugged them from the wall and coiled them up neatly, carrying them in one hand.

"I'm ready."

"Dr. Porter, ma'am?"

"I'm good to go," she looked at the two medics and wished she could see their eyes, "can we stop for lunch?"

This ambulance was outfitted with captain's chairs in the back instead of stretchers and soon Dr. Possible, Dr. Porter and Erica were (unnecessarily, but really, medics) rolled out, seated and buckled in. As the ambulance drove onto the highway, its markings changed from the standard red and white design to all white with the lettering changing to "Lazy C Airport Shuttle."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

The young med tech in coveralls with CDC in large letters on the back and a filter mask obscuring his face walked into Secret Lab #3, nodding and showing a badge to the two Air Force Security personnel guarding the door.

Hirotaka walked into the lab, ignoring the snickers of the security guys laughing at "those geeks who're scared of germs", he looked around. Wanda, dressed similarly was applying swabs to a room of some sort in the back. Because he knew what to look for, he saw his teammate plant audio listening devices and cameras while she apparently took dust samples from the walls and floor. Turning to his area of responsibility, he walked over to the desk. He picked up the family photograph housed in an ornately decorated frame, one that looked like maybe an art project done by a small child. The frame was originally a plain wooden frame with lots of objects like small stones, beads, and shells glued onto it. Running his hand around the frame, he removed and palmed the camera and memory chip. He sprayed a mist onto the picture and inspected it, no reason, just to provide cover for his actions. Looking around, he saw spare clothes and some hand towels that he placed into a clear plastic specimen bag, which he sealed.

Both Wanda and he looked at each other when they heard three clicks in their earpieces. Leaving the lab, they surrendered their specimen bags for security to officially examine and transfer them to the CDC labs. Finally, they were sloppily searched by the security at the door and allowed to leave. They quickly walked down the hall and slipped up a side stairway to the first floor. Stopping at a restroom to shed and discard their coveralls, they walked out the front door and around to the guest parking lot. Nana-sama had provided credentials and the PIN numbers needed to get them in and out. They had the strangest feeling that these people knew that they weren't who they claimed to be, but were happy to see them anyway.

A quick walk to motorcycle parking where they joined Yori and Suzie, donned leather jackets and helmets, then mounted up and left the premises.

"Why the 'leave now' signal, Yori-san?" Wanda, seated behind Suzie, asked over the encrypted comms in their helmets.

"One of Wade's drones saw a mark drawn on the grounds behind the building. I estimate it was directly over the lab where you and Hiro-san were working." Yori tapped Hirotaka on his shoulder and pointed to the exit to take. "Wade-san believes the source was something in low orbit. I am going to have Hiro-san take me to meet up with Dr. Possible's extraction team. He will return later. I will continue on to Japan."

Stopping at the Possible house, Suzie and Wanda put their bike in the garage and changed into their street disguises, basically jeans, tee shirts, and light jackets. Stopping at the Tweebs rooms, they checked in with the Team Orange hackers long enough to get a copy of the camera's data retrieved by Hirotaka plus the access information for the bugs planted by Wanda put onto a memory stick.

Leaving the house, the pair walked toward the Bueno Nacho when the ground opened under them and they disappeared.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

General Falco stood on an old unused runway. He had an honor guard standing at parade rest, off to the side. This was what he was born for, his destiny. About fifty feet in front of him was the alien glove sitting on a small table. A strange glyph had been drawn around it by an orbiting laser. The back of the glove had a touch screen and virtual keyboard. The techs were telling him that the odds were that it was a communication device and sure enough, it had lit up with some unreadable message yesterday. They had tried various inputs with the virtual keyboard until a single large blinking dot had appeared on the screen. Figuring that they had activated a beacon, they had brought it out here so the General could meet Destiny.

Not wanting to meet Destiny on an empty stomach, he sent a couple of aides out for carryout from Cow and Chow then settled back in an armored command vehicle to wait.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Betty Director sat back and watched her screens. Everything looked normal as far as she could see - except for the marks on the ground as seen from pictures sent to her from "Team Indigo". She shook her head at that thought, she could tell that Team Indigo was really Wade Load with maybe a helper or two. Was Yamanouchi absorbing all of Team Possible?

Watching her status windows, she saw that the "test animals" going to Japan would arrive at Tinker AFB later tonight. That meant that someone moved the schedule up a day. No matter, the C5A was already there being refueled and serviced. Tinker was the Air Force base in charge of all the huge AWACS and many other large aircraft and getting the GJ's huge transport out of their way a day earlier wouldn't matter to them.

Her comms window blinked with an incoming call. Clicking on 'accept', she said,

"Hello Du, I see that things seem to be moving up a day, what are you seeing?"

Du's characteristic neat hair looked windblown and she swore she saw a grease smudge on his cheek. He also seemed to be uncharacteristically happy,

"Dr. Director, I just got a notification from 'Cowboy's Momma' that both Drs. P have been 'checked out' of Hotel California. I'm currently in Drakken's Nebraska lair. His stealth hoverjet survived the collapse and some of our techs and I have been checking it out. We have it ready to fly and have even installed standard GJ transponders. Request permission to use it to pick up the Drs. P and take them to our cargo plane. In fact, Ma'am, I'd like to ship it to Japan as part of the experimental cargo we are sending to the Hokkaido Global Justice division. I feel that we could finish studying the hoverjet there more effectively away from the prying eyes of the U.S. Military."

"Very well, Agent Du. I will assign you to Hokkaido for three weeks and you will report on your progress at that time."

There was a knock on her door and an aide stuck his head in the door,

"Ma'am, the Yamanouchi Team Cobra was covertly routed from our Bueno Nacho tube to the one by Wade Load's house."

The young man walked and laid a memory stick on her desk.

"They said 'Give Dr. Director our compliments and tell her to analyze the data before putting on a networked computer.' I believe that it is surveillance data from Dr. Possible's lab."

"Thank you, Paul" she replied, reaching into a drawer to pull out a small laptop that was never attached to a network.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

This morning Raven was surprised to see that Ron had already showered and was shaving(!), standing at the sink with a towel wrapped around his waist when she walked into the communal bathroom to start her shower.

"Whoa, Mad Dog, have trouble sleeping?"

"No, I slept fine, just not long enough. Got to work harder on training. I have this bad feeling that I'm not ready."

"Not ready for…?" The dark-haired girl asked.

"Your first dream said that I died trying to save Japan, right? And that I didn't save it."

"Yori said not to focus on dreams, sometimes they are just an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato."

"Uh, is that a direct quote?"

"Yes, I'm pretty sure that is exactly what she said." The look in her dark eyes challenged him to disagree.

"Well, humor me. The MMP seems to cover up my brain problems. If I failed before, it was likely that I was slacking off in training. If I want to be more gravy than grave and break the prophecy, then I have to train hard and be as ready as I can."

"OK," she didn't like thinking about it, but she was here to try to change the prophecy, that is, either help him save Japan or die by his side. "Meet you at the pool?"

Ron splashed water on his face and dried it with a towel.

"Actually, I was thinking that maybe you should…"

"Hurry and take a shower so we can have a nice, hot breakfast before hitting that cold water?" she interrupted, "Great idea, boyfriend! Get cooking, I'll hurry."

Before freshly shaved blond could protest, she put her hand behind his neck and pulled him close until their foreheads touched.

"Ron, my brothers are here, my mom is here, my dad will be here soon. **More importantly, you are here**. I will not leave you. I'm thinking pancakes and eggs over easy with bacon, please and thank you."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

"That's weird," pointed out Joss, "If giant roaches don't have wings, why does their shell split like this?" They had pulled into a rest stop and were mopping out the space under Lenard's "elytra". At least that was what a quick Web search called it. The same web search pointed out that beetles had this protective 'shell' covering their wings, but normal roaches didn't. They had been discussing how to get James on board the cargo plane without being seen when Lenard, apparently listening, 'popped the lid to his trunk'. There was more than enough space for a couple of adults to lay down. Roaches don't sweat, so the space was really just dusty and musty, easy to clean.

About fifteen minutes later, Will Du landed next to them and they discovered a problem. James was fixated on getting to Anne and was ready to do a lot worse than ride in the "trunk" of a giant roach. Erica didn't have any fear of closed in spaces or bugs programmed into her personality. Vivian, on the other hand, appeared to have the same problem that Kimberly had with non-flickable bugs.

"Give me your jacket," Jessica told the scientist, stripping off her Middleton High letter jacket. As they swapped tops, she told the skeptical woman, "No sweat, just remember, head high, chest out and smile!"

Vivian held the jacket like it was cursed. She looked at Lenard a second time as if she was reconsidering.

"Remember Vivian-san," Yori pointed out, "People see what they want to see. If people look at you and see your slender form, the cheerleader jacket, and your smile then their brains will see a high school cheerleader, not a world-class robotics expert."

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

"I've loaded stranger cargoes," the GJ loadmaster told the visiting Air Force counterpart.

"Really?" the older man scoffed, "I suppose you transported Hannibal's elephants…"

"I can neither confirm nor deny…" the GJ loadmaster grinned then called to the auburn-haired girl standing on top of the first giant roach, "Miss! Pass the webbing strap please!" He caught the strap, connected it to a tie point in the deck, and ratcheted it down nice and snug but not uncomfortably tight. Of course, 'comfortable enough' for a seatbelt on a giant roach was a wild guess.

"OK, Lenard, hang onto this strap, sweetie" a blond girl was connecting short loops or webbing to tie points and guiding the massive insect's feet into them to give it something to hang on to.

'These people are nuts, freakin' nuts…' the old loadmaster said to himself.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Wade lay in bed trying to sleep. He and Katsumi had monitored and provided computer and drone assistance to the effort to get James to Japan all the way to the GJ C5A reaching international airspace. Wanda had dropped by and told the pair to continue working in shifts after finding that they refused to 'abandon' their posts.

Wade had convinced Katsumi to rest first as she was probably still suffering from jet lag. The young ninja had laid down on his bed 'so it will be easier to wake me if something happens'. Wade found it harder to focus on his screens than usual with his partner sleeping in his bed a few feet away. He put in an order for new silent keyboards. (Wade is a considerate young man.)

He considered it strange that while they were working, she was a smart and skilled database expert. He had been able to show her some things and she taught him a few things. She was nearly the perfect teammate, smart, willing to listen, a great sense of humor; in total, a pleasure to work with. Now that she was asleep, her femininity shone like the moon on a clear night. He wondered how people reconciled the different facets of the people they had relationships with. He resolved to have a talk with his mom and dad.

Three hours later, they switched places. Wade lay in bed and practiced some meditation techniques that Kim had taught him to quiet his thoughts. The problem was the smell. He had switched pillows, but the faint floral scent that he has smelled in the holo-room still teased his senses. Finally, he relaxed into the smell and fell asleep. If his dreams were of a cute ninja with the most amazing smile plus elite computer skills, the gods of sleep were merciful and he did not remember them.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Anne stood on the road by the little inn that she and Wanda had spent the first night after she arrived in Japan, it seemed a lifetime ago. A gust of wind blew around her and a hoverjet of some sort gradually appeared. The doors opened and people started to exit the craft. Only one mattered, the worn looking man with hair graying at the temples. Running to him, she threw herself into his arms, hugging him fiercely. Pulling back a little, she noticed tears streaming down his face.

"Honey, what's wrong?"

"I remember you," he said softly, pulling her more tightly to his body, "I remember this. The way you feel in my arms," a small sob shook his body, "I didn't forget what was the most important things to me."

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

Suzie Chin (Subira Chen) and her partner in Ninja-hood Wanda Wang, along with Team Panther, Team Twelve, and Team Orange are all from Sentinel103 and his "Once Again" stories.

 **Mea Culpa** There is roughly a 12-hour difference between Japan and the United States. That means that early morning in one spot is early evening in the other. So don't pay too much attention to the concept of simultaneity in this story.

 **Authors Note** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and plot bunny wranglers.

Published Oct 27th, 2018


	17. Chapter 17

Vivian Porter walked back to her seat carrying a pair of sodas. The GJ C5A was a serious cargo aircraft, and, like all its brethren, had a passenger section built into the 'ceiling' of the cavernous aircraft. This section had seating for seventy-three people, a galley and two lavatories. Noise canceling headsets with an intercom protected them against engine noise and throat microphones allowed normal conversation.

She plugged in her headset into her armrest to allow conversation with Yori and handed her one of the sodas, commenting "James and Kimberly's friends seem to be getting along well," looking at the engineer sitting between Tara and Jessica. The two blondes were telling stories, funny stories from their expressions. James was smiling, but his smile seemed strained.

"Possible-sensei feels that he has made a grievous mistake and that he was influenced by that evil disease is a poor excuse. He has asked them to tell him stories about Ron-san to help him get an accurate feeling of the young man who loves his daughter."

Yori watched as the shorter of the two blondes got up, picked up a grocery bag and walked over, plugging her headset into the armrest of the next seat.

"Yori, do you have a minute? We should give Roachie and his two friends a snack. Jess and I thought that if you served it to them, it would get them used to you."

"A snack?" Yori didn't like where this was headed.

"Sure," Tara pulled out three large dog water dishes out of the sack and showed her several packets of berry drink mix, a couple of bags of sugar and several boxes of powdered non-dairy creamer, "think of this as a smoothie for roaches…"

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

The retrieval lander was larger than the one than Warmonga had taken to the Moon, about twice the size of a school bus. Landing next to the mark on the grass behind the Middleton Space Center's Research and Engineering Building, it disgorged four lightly armored warriors whose first act was to lay an overly large hula-hoop on the mark. The hoop flared to life and burned a neat hole through the dirt and concrete and into the small room in the back of Secret Lab #3. Two warriors watched for threats above ground while their two compatriots slid down cables into the hole. Once inside the lab, they quickly looked for anything that looked like high tech.

The Air Force Security personnel guarding at the door opened fire with sidearms. Almost like an afterthought, one of the alien looters pulled a tube out of a holster, pointed it at the guards and pressed a button. A dozen projectiles that unfolded into webs the size of dinner plates shot out across the lab, striking the guards and shocking them senseless. In the meantime, its partner wrapped the desk and the two workbenches in a tough, thin carbon fiber reinforced membrane. A larger hole appeared in the ceiling of the main. The alien attached cables lowered through the hole to the desk and the second workbench and they were pulled up through the hole.

The first workbench was held to the floor by several wires and tubes coming out of the floor and running up to connect to a large device hidden inside the workbench.

The looter or more accurately, _Technical Artifact Retrieval Technician (TART) Number 12_ , carefully reached under the workbench as it was being lifted and cut each wire and tube until it was free. Each cut was recorded (video, thermal, and sound) to give hints as to the connections' utility.

Making one last scan around the room, TART 12 noticed an image of an Earth male surrounded by others laying on the floor. Putting it in a pocket, it grabbed a cable and followed its partner up to the lander.

Ten minutes elapsed from landing to takeoff.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

They gave themselves twenty minutes in the icy pool to play. Raven suspected that heavy exercise, even with the MMP assisting, depleted some chemical in the injured parts of their brain. When they got out, Ron's legs were unreliable and her hands trembled almost to the point of being useless. But if Ron boosted the MMP to himself and the amount he shared with her, his legs obeyed his mental commands perfectly and her hands became rock steady. But mentally that wasn't a concern right now to either teen…

"So, girlfriend, you ready for a little action?" Ron held out his hand to help Raven climb from the spring-fed pool. Both teens were covered in a thin layer of tiny bubbles, the remnants of the layer that helped keep them warm in the cold water.

Raven looked pointedly at Ron's crotch, "I guess the pool is too cold for you to be ready for anything except a little action. If you can stand the embarrassment of me kicking your cute, tight butt, maybe you could warm up enough to give me some real action…"

"I love it when you talk like that. C'mon, Ravie-baby, show me what you got…"

Tōgai-sensei and Kamiko were walking over to their wet students with towels but hopped out of the way as Ron backflipped out of reach of Raven's spinning kick attack.

* * *

Raven tossed her hair out of her face to look at her sapphire-glowing opponent. He was bleeding from a kick to his face, she knew she didn't look much better and without the MMP, her left arm would be dangling uselessly from a boulder strike.

"So, BF, yah ready to yield? Ready to admit that a **girl** beat your butt like a drum?"

Ron laughed, a long, loud laugh that had faint echoes of an insane glee.

"You mean a girl I powered up with the MMP? Want me to stop it and see how long you last?"

"Well, sure, if the only way you **think** you can beat me is to **cheat** , blue boy." Kim grinned. It should have scared her a little that right here, right now, she wasn't **Raven the Goth** who believed "We're all going to die soon anyway, so let's do the right thing until then." Nope, right now she was **Kim Freaking Possible** who believed that "nobody dies on my watch unless it's by my hand." Not the pre-prom KP that her blond BF adored, but the KFP who gunned down Shego and Drakken with no mercy and fewer lasting regrets. Which reminded her…

"Let's practice with some tools, you know, weapons we can use so we don't have to mess up my manicure or your pretty face?"

"Baby doll, I like how you think…"

Tōgai-sensei and Kamiko watched in dismay as their students/patients walked past the storage lockers for staffs and edged weapons, and removed a lock easier than if they had held a key. Ron removed an assault rifle and his companion removed a pair of pistols, along with several boxes of ammunition.

"Can you watch them Sensei?" his assistant asked, "I want to go hunt through the scrolls and see if I can find anything on this personality shift we're seeing…"

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Warhok brought the small lander down to the barren landscape of an isolated spot in the Texas Panhandle, carefully dropping down so that dust would not blow on Warmonga who was currently dismembering practice droids learning how to use the hook-shaped blade that replaced her hand.

Turning to greet him, she stopped to wipe the sweat off her face with a towel and took a long drink from a bottle of water.

"You're early!" she called, "Is there a problem?"

The huge male had dismounted from the lander and was walking toward her.

"No serious problems yet. The techs have reverse engineered the wormhole portal device, but can't figure out how it was powered. They were mumbling something about using dimensional vortex flux or some such nonsense. But the bio-scanner techs have found something that you should see."

He held out a datapad which she attached to her hook magnetically so her fingers would be free to tap and scroll. She browsed several pages of charts and numbers, flipping back and forth to reread parts. She quickly got to the end of the file, tapping on a video window to start it playing.

Warhok stepped around to look over her shoulder. The video showed an earth male sparring with an earth female. The part that grabbed their attention was that the male was floating about a foot off the ground and was covered in a soft blue that made him out of focus in the picture. The female was on the ground attacking the male while dodging and redirecting large rocks that were orbiting her opponent.

"By the suns, the Great Blue exists! See, I said it wasn't just a children's tale! I knew it!"

Warhok firmly grabbed and held fast his battle mate's arm, she was getting excited and he was in danger of losing a body part from a careless but excited gesture from an arm that ended in a bladed hook.

"We have to go meet with him!" Red eyes sparkled with excitement, "I know that he will help us with our cause!"

"I really must start making contact with the Earth people about obtaining their wormhole technology. I plan on starting with the bunch that holds your gauntlet."

"Why don't you start with that and I'll go introduce myself to the Great Blue." She was pleading with her eyes and Warhok hated to see his strong battle mate plead for anything.

"I value your input in these meetings, you are the most diplomatic of any of us here, my love."

"You flatter me, but I really think I need to go talk to him while you open relations with the people here. I don't want to ask any earth government's permission to talk later. How about we go back to the ship now and talk strategy and I'll even paint on your ceremonial markings for you…"

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

"Ronnie, I don't like this," Raven sat at the table in the little kitchen in their dorm. She watched Ron working at the stove while seated on a stool.

"I thought you liked shrimp creole? Okay, maybe some of the spices aren't what Emeril would use and I only have sticky rice, but…"

"No, I mean this," she held up her hands and was unable to hold them steady, "The only way I have steady hands and you," she gestured at the two walking sticks leaning against the stove, "have reliable use of your legs is for you to jack us up with the MMP and that is messing with our minds." A slight blush appeared on her pale skin, "Sorry about the 'little action' crack at the pool, that was just mean."

The blond chuckled, "That's OK, it was kind of funny. After all, it's not like you've seen that part primed and ready for action."

Raven blushed darker, "Well, there was that time we switched bodies…"

"It can get bigger now" Ron retorted, grinning, "Want to see?"

"Ronnie!" Raven protested, "I thought we were doing friendship without benefits?"

"That was mom's idea. She thought it would be better for our relationship in the long run. I'm not sure that we've got a long run left before the dream hits."

Raven paled, "Have you had any dreams? Did you nap with your sister Hana?"

"No, I just have this feeling like I'm not ready for a test, the test is going to be a pop-quiz, and I'm not sure where my pants are." When he saw Raven smile at the last part, he continued, "Oh and we have to go have dinner with my parents on Saturday. They've gotten all moved in and set up in their house down in the village. Your Mom and Dad are supposed to be there. I thought your Dad had critical work at the space center to do?"

"Maybe he finished? I haven't seen Mom all day, maybe she went to the airport to meet him."

"You said the MMP is messing with your mind, how so?"

"When I'm charged up, I feel aggressive and arrogant. I see you as the True Mystical Monkey Master, not as Ron Stoppable."

"Is that bad?"

"The True Monkey Master is an incredible source of power and a great potential ally. Ron Stoppable is the person who I love and desire."

Ron had spooned generous amounts of his 'Japanese Style' shrimp creole on top of bowls of containing rice. Handing her a bowl, he said, "Let's train hard for one more week and then maybe we can take a break to find the space to work on the love and desire part, OK?"

Raven nodded in agreement as she took her bowl. In her heart, she knew that something would come up. It always did.

He reached over, taking her hand, the intimate touch caused her to look up into soft brown eyes.

"I love you," he said, as a faint blue tint appeared over her field of vision. His soft brown eyes began to shine with blue flecks.

"I know," she replied, taking her hand back so she could start eating. The hand that was now steady as a rock

'Of course, he loves me,' she thought, 'I am Kim Freaking Possible, what's not to love?'

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

James slowly woke to the soft murmuring of angels. He lay on a soft futon on the floor of a very simple room. Last night had been amazing. Anne had thrown herself into his arms when he had gotten off the GJ hoverjet. He had a dim memory of her taking him back into their room at the Inn, helping him with a Japanese style bath and finally eating a light meal before taking him to bed.

General fatigue and jet lag had prevented him from doing more than falling asleep with her in his arms, but that was enough for a start. Looking around, he saw that he was mostly right. The love of his life knelt at a low table, sipping coffee and looking at a tablet with a video call window open. She was wearing a colorful robe of some sort, the body was covered in flowers and fish, a dragon ran down the sleeves. She was talking to Vivian along with a younger version of herself.

She was talking to Erica.

He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. He still couldn't remember a lot of his actions in the last month or two, but what he remembered was bad. Or as Ronald would say, 'That goes beyond sick and wrong, it's wrong-sick'.

He felt the futon shift a little as someone knelt down and then straddled him. He opened his eyes and looked up into blue eyes, a blue that was warm and human instead of cool and electric.

"Morning dear, how are you feeling? Want coffee before or after?" she asked with a hint of a sly smile.

"I'm so sorry…"

"I got a data dump from Erica," she interrupted, "and we'll discuss…things later." The surgeon remembered how frightened she had been when she saw the video of her husband collapsing into the arms of Erica. This morning she had discussed and gone over data provided by her synthodrone 'little sister'.

From a quick examination of the partial design notes of the brain virus nano factory recovered from Erica's memory 'recycle bin', she thought that the problem wasn't so much damage to his brain areas but that the connections of many areas holding James's memories were simply 'unplugged'. Apparently, Ronald was able to temporarily reconnect pathways through the damaged parts of Kimmy's brain as well as his own. She wanted to try an experiment to see if Ron could do the same for James. She hoped that the lack of physical damage in her husband's brain might mean that the reconnection of pathways would be permanent.

She had initially been upset and angry when Erica recounted her husband's plans to separate Ron from Kimmy. His desire to do so was something that she didn't agree with, but it was the details that powered a period of fierce anger in her, details like creating her 'little sister' to seduce Ronald, then deciding that the boy wasn't even good enough to touch the synthodrone. From there, the details got confusing, apparently, he was thinking of using the synthodrone to seduce Kimmy?! Erica had played back her recording of the part where James was fighting the fever induced paranoia and realized that his plans were evil, that he was a 'bad mad-scientist'.

Anne had come to the conclusion that the James she loved was still in there somewhere and that he could be fixed. If her plan on using Ronald worked then that should help solidify the relationship between the two.

But, this morning, she wanted to work on convincing James that he wasn't a bad mad-scientist, but that he was a good husband and she still loved him. Straddling him was a good place to start. She sat upright and untied the belt from her robe, allowing it to fall open. She smiled when she saw his brain almost seize up when he saw she wore nothing under it. 'You still got it, girl,' she thought.

"You got a data dump… From Erica?" His brain managed to generate one last coherent question.

"Yes, well, among other features that you gave her that we **will** discuss later, you gave Erica an enormous amount of data storage. She snagged a copy of all your medical tests and a copy of some other files from the Space Center."

She leaned over, putting her hands on each side of his head. His hands automatically reached up to hold her. Bringing her face close to his she murmured,

"Last chance to ask for coffee first…" she murmured before kissing him lightly at first, then more deeply.

Her hand slid between them and gently wrapped his rapidly hardening member with her cool, slender fingers, "Let's see if you remember what we can do with this…," her breathy voice was warm on his neck, "I might even give you a hint…" She trailed little bites down his neck and onto his shoulder.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Yori firmly believed in Karma and this was proof of it. She had traveled to America with the rest of Team Cobra because that was where Master Sensei wanted them. After loading their cargo, the local GJ office balked at taking all the roaches, finally agreeing to take Roachie and one of the two larger ones. The senior Ninja found herself walking up the mountain path with Lenard following close behind, recalling the words of the Chosen One, 'Why is it that Karma is always a bite in the butt and never a surprise two for one sale on nacos…'. The 'sale on nacos' part of this bit of karma was a delay in having to tell Master Sensei that she had returned to Japan against orders. She did not expect the headmaster to be happy with her.

"Yori-chan?" the caretaker of all the nature on their mountain, Ouka Nakano stepped noiselessly out of the trees. A long snake with a purplish cast to its scales rode looped around her neck, its head raised, its tongue sampling the air.

"What new friend have you brought me, dear one?" Yori was one of the caretaker's favorite students, the young Ninja would often stop by for tea after she finished meditating in the forest.

"Obachan, may I introduce Lenard-san, one of Stoppable's friends." Turning to the giant roach with a slight grimace, she continued, "Lenard-san, this is Ouka Nakano, Nakano-sensei is the caretaker for all that lives wild on the mountain."

The giant roach hissed, clicked and then knelt with its front legs, giving the appearance of bowing.

The older caretaker laughed with delight, "Stoppable-san certainly is a friend to many strange creatures. Can you understand them as he does?"

"No, I believe Lenard understands much of what you say, but I cannot understand him at all."

"Perhaps it comes with the MMP? No matter, come with me and I will show you a cave suitable for Lenard-san. But first, come to my cottage and we will have tea. I also have a pile of vegetable scraps for Lenard, some of the villagers and I have been putting up food for the winter."

As the three walked quietly back into the trees, Yori asked, "Obachan, why do you carry Snake-san around your neck?"

"Snake-san had six babies soon after she arrived. I found her waiting for me one morning, I think she just likes to be carried around. She certainly seems no more intelligent than any other snake. Perhaps she was just spoiled by Possible-san…"

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Vivian got out of the huge black BMW sedan after it stopped at a wall with a gate. A nice wall with a gate, all the houses in the area had walls with gates in front, it reminded her of suburban castles somehow. She had actually let the large man in the dark suit and shades help her out. Two other BMW sedans also stopped with parking one in front and the other behind the car she had been chauffeured in.

'What the heck was I thinking? Oh, right, I was thinking I'd be hanging out with Ninja, not the Yakuza.' Erica walked around the car to stand beside her. Another large, young tough came out the door,

"Welcome to the home of Dia Bosu-sama. Please come this way," he motioned them into the courtyard.

The courtyard was small but had a koi pond and beautiful landscaping. Waiting on the porch was an older man (maybe even as old as James) who was dressed casually. The young tough led them over saying,

"Dia Bosu-sama, this is Dr. Vivian Porter and her associate, Erica." He spoke proudly as if bringing them here was the conclusion of an important and dangerous mission.

The man bowed to them after politely dismissing their escort, saying, "Welcome to my home. Come have dinner with my wife and me. Then we can set you up with a place to sleep. You must be tired after your long flight."

There was a quick flurry of Japanese as the Yakuza crime boss directed two of his men to take his guests' bags to their room. Turning to Erica, he added,

"Erica, how are your energy reserves? What kind of power plug do you need for charging?"

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

"We wait here." General Falco had maintained his presence in the command vehicle for three days now, except for a brief period in the morning to shower, shave, and put on a fresh uniform. Dr. Possible's lab at the Middleton Space Center was raided, looted might be a better term, yesterday and he saw no reason to think they would return to the lab. No, if these people were savvy enough to know where the wormhole generator was, they would certainly be smart enough to know that he was the man to talk to.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Tōgai-sensei and Kamiko watched Raven dodge a head-sized rock whizzing past her head like a blue meteor by rolling to the side then continuing up into a kneeling position and snapping off two quick pistol shots at her levitating sapphire enshrouded boyfriend. A fist-sized rock deflected the first shot, shattering in the process, but the second flew through the little dust cloud towards its target.

Raven, seeing her BF stagger and the rocks orbiting him fall to the ground, screamed and raced toward him. She got to him about two steps ahead of Kamiko only to see him drop to the ground, laughing.

Reaching his hand out in front of him, he plucked a bullet floating in a circle around him out of the air, "Did you drop this?" he asked with a sneer.

"You jerk!" the dark-haired girl screamed, put her sidearm back in its holster in the small of her back then threw herself at him wrapping around his body and nearly knocking him over.

Staggering back a step as her dim blue glow merged with his stronger blue aura, he put his arms around her,

"Ravie-baby, you need to charge the rounds you fire with MMP to have a chance of hitting me."

"But Ronnie…" the girl was nearly in tears. Kamiko found her reduction in arrogance interesting. Was the fear of having wounded her partner responsible for the shift back from what they were calling the "Zorpox attitude"?

"No buts Raven, I have to train hard and you pulling your punches isn't helping me. Besides, we have fine doctors here, a single bullet hole in me isn't a problem, right Kamiko?"

Kamiko's retort was cut off by the roar of thrusters, A small craft reminiscent of an old Lunar Lander shimmered into view and touched down about fifty feet away. The sphere on top opened and a feminine form, perhaps nine feet tall jumped lightly to the ground, a short staff held in one hand. With the carbon scoring on the tip, it was obviously not just a wooden stick.

Raven and Ron walked over to the stranger while Kamiko took off at a jog to make sure someone in the monastery was alerted. Sensei Tōgai just stood relaxed off to the side as if giant woman dropping from the sky was an everyday occurrence.

The Wonder Woman quotation from Master Sensei's dinner of ' **Don't kill if you can wound, don't wound if you can subdue, don't subdue if you can pacify, and don't raise your hand at all until you've first extended it** _,_ ' echoed in Raven's thoughts as she reached the woman with Ron at her side. She looked at the pale green woman with brilliant red on gold eyes and held out her empty hand.

"Hello. I am Raven Mara." Raven (and currently she was much closer to Raven than Kim Freakin' Possible) might have worried that she looked like a wreck due to their sparring and the tears from thinking that she had shot her boyfriend. But the goth in her thought, 'Screw 'em if they can't take a joke, send a meeting request next time and we will greet them all cleaned up and waiting with tea and cookies.'

Warmonga's earpiece whispered with advice from her lander's A.I., "Extending an empty hand is a common gesture of peaceful greeting. Take your right hand and firmly grasp her hand, then let go. There is usually a brief up and down motion before the release. Raven Mara is probably just the female's name. Raven is a bird associated with sadness, loss, and death; Mara could refer to a god of death and erotic desire or a small furry animal with long ears and long legs."

"Greetings, I am Warmonga. I have come seeking the Great Blue to ask for his assistance to help my people," she switched her staff to the blade that replaced her right hand, magnetically locking it to the blade's sheath. Holding her left hand out, she knelt on one knee to make her closer to eye level with the dark-haired human. Raven switched to her left hand and gave the offered alien hand a firm shake.

"I am pleased to meet you," Raven replied, "This is Ron Stoppable, my partner."

Standing to her full height, she turned to face Ron and with a small bow, she said,

"Great Blue, can we talk?"

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

Vivian sipped her Japanese beer, a nice pale lager. She had been careful with her alcohol consumption at dinner with this Dia Bosu person and his wife, Michiko. Dinner had been pleasant. Dia Bosu had asked her to call him Jirou as 'Dia Bosu' simply meant 'Big Boss', the affectionate nickname his men used. He had talked of their adventures with Jim and Tim Possible, who he and his group affectionately called the Bouyatachi ('little dudes'). Michiko had studied software engineering in college and asked her about her software writing practices.

After dinner, Michiko had retired for the evening, leaving Dia Bosu and Vivian to talk business. Erica knelt at the table, but apparently, James had not thought to program in conversational skills. She sat quietly recording the conversation.

"No offense, but I think that working for the Yakuza might limit my options working for other groups in the future. You **are** a criminal operation, yes?"

"We will obscure your involvement and your paychecks using layers of holding companies. You will be able to deny knowing that you knew who exactly you were working for."

"But I'll know," 'Okay, maybe I'm sipping this beer too fast,' she thought.

"You'll know that you were the prime programmer for Nippon Synthonics, the premier company for creating syntho-helpers for humanity. Syntho-maids to help care for the very young and elderly. Syntho-reaction workers, the ultimate first responders in disaster response."

"Why me?"

"First, you are a colleague of James Possible. We have heard of your work creating Oliver, a truly artificial human. We need a programmer that can provide elements of empathy and compassion in our products. We want the general population to cheer when they see a syntho rescuer worker coming to help them. We want people to get emotionally attached to the syntho-maids that care for them, their children, their parents."

"And all this would make your products more profitable," Vivian would later request that Erica cut her off in the future when she started talking truth to power with an alcoholic beverage in her hand.

"Yes! Exactly!" the Yakuza boss's eyes were alive with enthusiasm, "You said that we were a criminal organization and you are correct. Our goals for generations has been money, power, and respect from the people of Japan. You and the Bouyatachi can give us all that while at the same time, we can turn away from violence, intimidation, and corruption. People will shower us with money, respect and praise because they want the products you will program. Because those products will improve their lives."

The boss took a deep breath and stepped back from the impassioned speech he had spun up into. Several bodyguards hearing their perennially calm manager speak with such passion and excitement had appeared just in case they were needed.

He knelt back down at the table and fixed Vivian with a direct gaze,

"Dr. Porter, many people in Japan today have no children or family. Your software can keep these people from growing old and dying alone. The emotions of a syntho-maid might be artificial, but they will appear to be real. You can allow these people to grow old and pass on with real companionship at their side. Can you just walk away and leave them to die lonely and alone? My apologies for keeping you up. Please, get some rest and we can talk in the morning."

He left the room after instructing a bodyguard to see that they found their room.

Dia Bosu was ready to do a victory dance. He knew what Dr. Porter's answer would be.

* * *

 **STD 2018-**

General Falco stood in front of his honor guard. An armored personnel landing craft of some sort had touched down near the alien glove sitting on a small table. A large humanoid male, at least nine or ten feet tall stepped out of a hatch followed by two slightly smaller humanoids in armor that totally covered their bodies. The male in front, by contrast, wore a kilt, heavy boots, and gloves, no shirt. His body was heavily muscled with black and deep red tribal markings adorning his chest, arms, and face. A fur-trimmed cloak fluttered in the breeze. He walked forward and stopped in front of the General who was thinking that a cloak and kilt might look good for Air Force Special Forces.

"I am Warhok, the Number One Agent of Galactic Justice. I am here to investigate the incident where an unarmed explorer was mutilated." He pointed to the glove, "Who is responsible for our citizen losing her hand?"

"Agent Warhok, the team who were performing the experiment that injured your citizen had no way of knowing that an extraterrestrial species was investigating our solar system. Extraterrestrial travel is very rare for us, so the team thought that such experimentation would be safe. The maiming of your explorer was unfortunate, but I assure you that it was an accident."

"Of course, you know this," the general continued, fixing the visitor with what he hoped was a firm eye. "You have seized the device by force. By now, you have undoubtedly examined it and concluded that no weapons were installed."

Deciding to be a little diplomatic, he stepped forward and extended his hand, "I am General Fred Falco. I am most regretful that the accident happened. The project was in control of civilians when the tragedy occurred. I have taken over the responsibility of the project. Might I ask how your citizen is?"

"My citizen survived, but she is one of the fraction of our people who cannot regenerate limbs, so she is permanently mutilated. Let me be clear, I am doing an investigation, not charging anyone with a crime. I do insist on interviewing the **civilian** that knows about the device that caused the incident."

General Falco thought quickly, Dr. Possible was in no shape for an interview as of the last report he had seen. His best plan was to supply what the Number One Agent asked for. That would give him time to see how Dr. Possible was doing. Perhaps he had improved.

"Of course, the senior scientist for the project is currently Dr. Laura Ladra. We will set up a meeting between you and the good doctor."

There was a sound of ripping canvas and a jet of smoke appeared from the top of the alien armored personnel landing craft. A plume of smoke appeared about a half-mile to the south where a Kiowa recon helicopter lay on its side, its characteristic sphere containing its cameras and sensors along with most of its rotors were missing.

Warhok smiled. It was not a pleasant smile.

"Perhaps you will turn over the 'good doctor' to us. I fear that our continued presence here could lead to more accidents. In the meantime, perhaps we could arrange for more diplomatic types to talk?"

The General turned to his aide.

"Please bring Dr. Ladra here at once."

* * *

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

Suzie Chin (Subira Chen) and her partner in Ninja-hood Wanda Wang, along with Team Panther, Team Twelve, and Team Orange are all from Sentinel103 and his "Once Again" stories.

 **Mea Culpa** There is roughly a 12-hour difference between Japan and the United States. That means that early morning in one spot is early evening in the other. So don't pay too much attention to the concept of simultaneity in this story.

 **Authors Note** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and plot bunny wranglers.

Published Nov 9th, 2018


	18. Chapter 18

**STD 2018- (Lowardian Fleet)**

Warhok strode into the briefing room of the largest bandit frigate and snapped to attention. The captains of the smaller ships of their little fleet were already assembled.

The Captain of captains acknowledged their most massive warrior with a nod and asked, "Warhok, have you retrieved the engineer that knows how to make their wormhole system work?"

"Sir, I have just brought up the engineer in charge of it," he answered, relaxing to a position of parade rest. "She should be able to fill in any gaps our technical experts are encountering."

"Have a seat, we are just getting ready to watch the latest from the intelligence team. They obtained a report on the use of the wormhole for combat."

A wiry Lowardian Warrior dressed in green and sand-colored camo stood and addressed the room, "This information was part of some files that we managed to obtain from a junior officer assigned to General Falco. It is preliminary and I will narrate from their written notes as the videos lack a narrator."

The first video showed human males inside a series of caves. They were cleaning weapons, assembling devices of some sort, and having a meeting where a leader of some kind was pointing to a large map on the wall.

"I must preface my presentation by noting that this planet has not yet developed a single government," the intelligence specialist noted. "While several cultures have attained a level of domination known as 'great power', they do not seem eager to obliterate each other and become the dominant culture. For this reason, the organization, known as a nation, that has developed the wormhole technology finds itself combating a foe in an area it is unwilling to purge of intelligent life prior to annexation."

"This enemy keeps its base of operations in a series of deep caves in a dry, mountainous land. Deep in solid rock and with reinforced walls and ceilings, they are protected against direct assault. The use of any weaponry with enough power to collapse the caves would destroy nearby villages. While the nation in question is easily capable of evacuating the endangered villages, they seem unwilling to do so, or to simply consider the occupants to be acceptable, collateral damage."

"This is a puzzling attitude," the specialist confirmed to the round of murmured questions. "And we continue to investigate the limits of this consideration. However, back to their proposed weaponization of the wormhole technology."

The video switched to large square ponds of some pinkish thick liquid situated in green farmland.

"These are called 'hog lagoons' which strangely enough do not contain hogs, an animal that humans raise for food, but are collecting pools where they collect the animals' bodily wastes. We don't know why they do this. These lagoons are located within the boundary of the wormhole nation's claimed territory."

The video showed a computer simulated high-pressure pump shooting a high-velocity stream of the viscous, lumpy, pink liquid into one end of a wormhole portal and then switched to the caves where a wormhole portal appeared, vomiting out the pink sludge.

"It appears that drowning your enemy in pink hog waste has additional sociological and religious meanings. Further information on that detail will be provided when we discover it. The next video indicates that objects leave the wormhole at the same speed they entered it."

An atmospheric fighter started an attack run against a ground target when a wormhole opened up directly in front of it. Unable to dodge in time, the fighter flew into it. The scene changed and the fighter zoomed out of the wormhole and into the side of a mountain only a dozen feet in front of the exit, exploding into a ball of fire.

The briefer finished up, saying, "This is preliminary, they are still working on other ideas such as using a wormhole to allow an attack by dropping old, junked vehicles from a height of ten of their measure of distance called a mile, onto government capitols, destroying buildings. The writer called it 'Buick Blanket Bombing'. For some reason, they thought that was humorous."

A Captain raised his hand in the back, "What is to keep the Earthers or just this nation you have deemed the wormhole nation, from opening a portal in this room and filling it with that pink excrement?"

The briefer replied, "There is a maximum range, theoretically the molecular vibrations of the device will degrade the ability to set the ends of the wormhole if they are too far away. We don't know the maximum distance, but we have seen the prototype function over the distance from the planet to its moon. The fleet should be well outside the theoretical range, assuming that we understand the theory, plus their sensors cannot detect us at this distance. The Technical Artifact Retrieval Teams believe that the computers in the lab that they extracted had the only current copies of the plans for the wormhole device. Now that we have their engineering lead plus their only working device, the Earthers cannot make another one without recreating the design."

The Captain of captains looked pleased. "Gentlemen, once we have their prototype working, we will be able to plunder this planet without having to land TARTs, the resulting fuel savings plus the lack of wear and tear on our landing craft will make this planet the most profitable one yet."

Warhok raised his hand, "Sir, what about the Great Blue that Warmonga believes she has located?"

Their leader scoffed, "That old children's bedtime story? A planetary defender that can defeat entire armies?" he thought for a moment, "bring him up here, we will test him and if he won't join us, then it could be a long walk down a short wormhole for him." He broke out in uproarious laughter, greatly amused at his own joke.

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Yamanouchi)**

"Our people have a legend of a Great Blue, a mighty mystical warrior that defends the innocent against attackers. We are in a conflict with an expanding Empire. If the Great Blue could assist us, we could retake planets enslaved by this Empire. His presence alone would greatly help us win battles. We want the Great Blue to come up to the fleet for testing," Raven's glare was apparently a part of a universal language because their guest added, " **with his consort, of course**." Warmonga sat cross-legged on a cushion addressing Master Sensei, Raven, and Ron. They sat next to a flaming brazier in the courtyard, its shadows dancing along the ground.

"If I leave to help you, I will be abandoning my people, leaving them defenseless. You should be aware that I am not fully trained," Ron replied. Giving a somewhat bored sigh, he continued, "besides, the Empire is not trying to enslave my people."

"Don't you believe your duty is to peoples beyond this little planet? Besides, it is only a matter of time until the tendrils of the Empire reach here. Wouldn't it be better to use enslaved planets as a battleground than to wait for Imperial Peacekeepers to arrive with a full invading force? Enslaved planets only have a few Imperial Peacekeepers to maintain their hold on the population. Just the appearance of the Great Blue would be enough to influence the population to obey our freedom fighters."

Raven saw that Ron's aura was starting to fade. 'He's got to be about to crash on energy, we had nearly finished a hard workout when Jolly Green here landed,' she thought. Her hands were starting to tremble, he must be low. Hoping not to be seen as weak, she said,

"Surely we do not have to decide this tonight. Are you able to eat our food? Let us at least show you the hot springs where our fighters relax away the pains and tensions of the day."

"I must return to my ship and give them a report. I can return in four Earth days. Will the Great Blue be ready?"

"Six days will be required before the Great Blue will be available," said a voice from one of two women walking up to the group, "whether he will be willing to return with you is another question. Is there some method that we can use to communicate with you in the meantime?"

"I fear there is no way for you to contact me," the alien stood, "I will return in five days." She walked out the courtyard, picking up an 'honor guard' of six Ninja from Team Twelve and continuing to her landing craft. A few minutes later, it rose into the sky and out of sight on a pillar of fire.

Ron watched until the craft was out of sight, then his aura strengthened and Raven felt her hands steady as he shared MMP with her. 'Woah,' the Goth girl thought, 'Does he have that much capacity or is he pulling energy from elsewhere?'

Turning to the newly arrived women, the steadily glowing Monkey Master said,

"Hey, Mrs. Dr. P." His goofy grin was absent and his eyes were an electric blue that matched the second woman's eyes. "How about I fix us all some dinner and you tell me what you need me to do for you? Sensei, would you join us? I want to see if you heard the same lies I heard from that alien babe."

Raven turned to her boyfriend, "I had a suspicion the alien was having a hard time with the truth…"

Ron replied with a smirk, "She gave us just enough information…she might be a fan fiction writer because she told just enough truth to be believable if you were an ignoramus or something."

Raven snorted, "I'm glad it wasn't just me…"

* * *

 **STD 2018 (Middleton, Wade's basement/ops center)**

"Shimatta!" _A/N a light expletive, means "Oh, no!" or "damn!" in Japanese. ( Urban Dictionary) While Katsumi is a Yamanouchi Ninja, she is a polite young Ninja. Depending on the level of her future interaction with Wanda and Suzie, she might remain that way. Or not._

Wade whirled around in his computer chair on hearing the cry of dismay from his partner. As pop-up notifications on his screens warned "Network error: cannot connect to the Internet", he asked,

"Katsumi! What's happened?"

"We've been back-channeled, Wade-san!" She held the emergency disconnect in her hand; a length of thin rope tied to the power plug to the main gateway router that funneled all traffic from this room to the Internet via fiber or backup cellular radio or even a satellite dish on the roof. She had yanked the emergency disconnect and the entire room was now off the net.

"Where did the attack slip in? My network defenses should have detected it and redirected away from our systems to the honey pot!"

The honeypot was an old computer defense technique. You put a server on your network that was sort of easy to hack, made it look like it had data worth stealing, and when the intrusion detection system caught someone hacking in, it gave you time to track their connection back to the attacker. Wade had recycled an older PC to be his honey pot, it even had a Winnie the Pooh toy sitting on top of it.

Wade expected to see that his defenses kept the attack away from any of his important computer systems and that Katsumi had unnecessarily panicked. Looking at her displays, he saw that he was wrong.

"Holy cow," he quickly scanned the historical list of network connections. A network socket that should have only been supplying status information from the listening devices that Hirotaka and Wanda had planted in James's lab was being used to try to snoop all the systems in the room. It had pulled data from his comms computer.

"It appears that someone knows all our communications over the last week. Anything older than that has been moved to a backup server. Good job, Kat, because you reacted so quickly, that is all that they got."

Katsumi blushed at the praise and at his use of 'Kat', the same diminutive form of her name that her Grandmother had used affectionately. "We'd better tell Team Cobra and Team Orange."

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Yamanouchi)**

Raven and Ron had quietly insisted on silence until they got to the dormitory kitchen. Once there, Raven turned on a box that the Tweebs had provided them, filling the room with a soft rainstorm sound. Jim and Tim developed it with Wade, they claimed it would defeat listening devices and they knew better than to question those three.

They had a pretty full house, Sensei Tōgai and Kamiko joined them, they had been listening to the meeting with the alien but sitting out of sight in the shadows. (recall that even a student Ninja can become invisible in the Yamanouchi courtyard)

"Dad's here? So, let's go get him!" Raven was still annoyed about his interference with her and Ron, but oddly enough, Kim 'F' Possible missed him and worried about him.

"Kimmy, your dad hasn't totally recovered from a virus, I told him to take a nap and that I'd come to get him and we'd go to the hot springs later." That wasn't really a lie, but Anne didn't want to mention certain topics just yet. Like the extent of fever-induced madness that made him talk to ghosts and remaking Eric into a distraction for Ron.

The woman who looked like Anne's younger sister said quietly, "I want to tell some things that James doesn't remember but that will come out sooner or later." Her eyes were the same electric blue as Ron's.

"Just a second," interrupted the Monkey Master who handed a knife to Kamiko, asked her to fix the veggies, pointing to a basket with a squash, green peppers and onions. After setting an extra skillet on a burner for her, he started grilling tuna, shrimp, and strips of beef.

"Now Miss… Uh…" he resumed.

"My name is Erica."

"Well, Erica, I'd prefer that Mr. Dr. P tell me when he remembers everything and knows what he really wants me to know. You know?"

Anne was relieved that Ron was cutting off the very topic she did not want to discuss now but tried to give a minimal explanation, "Ronald, James is suffering from brain damage caused by a virus. I want you to do the MMP thing that you do for yourself and Kimmy. In James's case, I think the fix will be permanent."

Showing Anne that Ron Stoppable was way too perceptive when you desperately wanted a clueless blond, Ron replied, "Not a problem, Mrs. Dr. P, I will do my best to help the man who hated me so much that he built Erica the synthodrone to keep me away from KP."

"Ron! Daddy wouldn't do that!" Raven was horrified. That would make her Dad as bad as Drakken!

"Erica, am I correct?"

"Yes, your statement is correct, I was created to seduce you away from Kimmie-cub while he found a more suitable mate for her."

"See? Obvious, once you think about it," he put extra seasonings on the three types of meat and turned the heat up to max to give them a nice crusty, almost blackened, finish. He continued speaking while apparently focusing on his wok wizardry.

"Imagine. Poor Ron Stoppable has been kicked to the curb by his BFF, Kimberly. But how to make sure the lazy, good for nothing, bum doesn't pull off a miracle? That's easy, you create a smoking hot babe that comes up to him and actually gives him the time of day. A little female attention then he's all 'KP who?'. Still, got to give mad props to Mr. Dr. P 'cause Erica is a younger Mrs. Dr. P. If you will excuse me for saying so, using an age-appropriate version of Kimberly's smoking hot mom is the perfect bait for the Ron-man."

Sliding the meats onto a platter, Ron then reached to the first microwave and pulled out a plate of steaming tortilla shells. Placing everything on the table along with several pairs of tongs, he pointed out to a mostly stunned audience, "These are sort of make your own fajitas or burritos, I'll get the beans and rice. Sorry, didn't have any cilantro for guacamole, but there are avocado slices."

Coming back, he set the final items on the table, looked around and said, "Eat! Don't let it get cold," turning to Erica, he asked, "Erica, what can I do for you, I'm guessing you don't eat?" In response, she produced a power cord, placed one end under her blouse to connect to someplace he couldn't see and held the other end up. Looking around, he told her, "Plug it in here, that should be close enough for you to sit at the table."

Ignoring the rest of the people staring at him, he took a tortilla shell and started assembling a burrito. With a sly smile, he asked,

"By the way Erica, if you don't mind telling me, why didn't Mr. Dr. P turn you loose on me?"

"James decided that I was too good for you," was the simple reply. She could have just replayed the recorded audio, but her logic determined that would have been a much more painful reply without being more truthful than just reciting the bare facts.

Ron, about to bite into his burrito, broke out laughing and almost rolled onto the floor. Again, the laugh had a slightly hysterical overtone. Finally catching his breath, he said, "Well, can't argue with Mr. Dr. P, he's right about that."

Kamiko gave up waiting for an upset Raven to pull herself together and help her boyfriend dial back the blue and the resulting distortion on his personality. Getting up and walking over to the erratic Monkey Master, she laid her hand on his shoulder and said,

"Back down Ronald-kun. You are pulling too hard on the blue. Come back to us please."

Anne reached across the table to put her hand on his, "Ronald, James is wrong. You would have been good enough for me back then just as you are good enough for Kimmy now."

A small dark-haired happy meteor tore into the room and crashed into him, crying, "Brother!" His blue aura was snuffed out like a blown-out match. A smaller pink streak flashed by as Rufus climbed on Ron's shoulder.

"Hana-chan," the P.A said, "Ronald needs a little bit of monkey power to help his legs be strong."

"OK," the little girl said, "I sorry." She screwed up her face for a moment trying to concentrate, but nothing happened. "Roofie, help," she said at last.

The mole rat's eyes flashed blue then Ron regained a slight blue shine, as did Raven.

A somewhat shaken Mr. Stoppable was standing in the door with Yori standing oddly shyly behind him, "Did you make enough for three extra people, son?" His smile didn't reach his eyes.

"Hey!" squeaked a small voice.

"Sorry, that's four extra people," His smile now reached his eyes at the familiar running gag.

"Sure, Dad, there's plenty and I can make more if we run low, where's Mom?"

"She's having a girl's night out with some of the women from the village. I had brought Hana up for a visit when we heard the alien ship. We were hiding out in the woods with Nakano-san until the coast was clear."

They pulled up extra chairs, even managed to dig up a high chair for Hana.

"Yori-san, did you hear the conversation with the alien?"

"Hai, Master Sensei, I was hidden within easy listening distance."

"Tell us your impressions, please," the headmaster asked the student that he really wished had remained on the other side of the planet. He had sent her along with the rest of her team but wasn't surprised that she had disobeyed and returned. Her sense of duty and honor was unquestioned, but she had always believed that her duty extended beyond her team and her Sensei to encompass all of Yamanouchi. He resolved to speak to her later about how her duty to Yamanouchi could be best served in America, but he had no expectation of success.

"The Alien was lying. I do not believe that they are noble freedom fighters but are something else. Perhaps slavers or raiders. I believe raiders as I do not believe the economics of slavery would support interplanetary trade. Unless the slaves were particular persons with special qualities," the Ninja looked directly at Ron.

"Whoa, Yori, I believe what you are saying, but you got all that from that discussion?" Ron said.

"And Hanna nap-dream," squeaked a small voice. Running over to Raven, the Mystical Monkey Molerat tapped her abdomen, "Must make dream true. We need to talk."

The last wasn't Rufus's squeaky voice even though they all clearly saw his mouth move. The much deeper, inhuman voice continued, "Seriously, you buffoons couldn't pour water out of a bucket if the prophecy telling you how to do it was etched in letters of fire on the bottom."

"Oh, right, Mystical Monkeys don't do boots." muttered a blond, followed by "What?!" when he noticed everyone staring at him in disbelief.

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Lowardian Fleet)**

Warhok strode back into the briefing room. This was getting old, Warmonga had just returned and he missed her touch.

"Reporting as ordered, Captain," In this bandit fleet, the highest title was Captain with the raider's fleet leader called the Captain of captains. But in addressing him, the title was still just "Captain". Warhok thought that practice was stupid egalitarianism nonsense, but he went with it. Standing at the end of the table, he noticed the others weren't captains, by their pale skins and puny musculature, he figured they were engineers or intelligence analysts.

"The person you brought up is useless with respect to the wormhole device," declared the Captain.

Warhok grinned, "I suspected that Falco was stalling for time. I shall toss the female's dismembered body in his face and **politely** suggest that he do better."

"We are keeping the Ladra female. While she is useless for most things, she has a talent for storytelling. The crews are enjoying something she calls 'slash fan fiction' about two humans named Conan the Barbarian and Vlad the Impaler."

Warhok was outraged, "What about the rule that says 'Thou shalt not suffer a fan fiction writer to live'!"

"That was back in the days when these proscribed stories focused on weak, weepy women driven by their desires and lusts. The stories of Ladra are different. It is a new day Warhok."

"Listen to him, my love, there are no weak, weepy females left in our worlds, only in the worlds of sheep." Warmonga walked into the room, her red eyes suggesting another meaning of the word slash fiction as she saluted the Captain with her hook-blade, "My Captain, will this take long? I have need of Warhok."

"We were discussing the failure of the engineer the Earth commander gave us to show us how their wormhole device works," cutting to the chase as he knew that when someone like Warmonga 'needed' her battle mate, it was not wise to get in the way,

One of the puny men at the table meekly spoke up, "From our analysis of the files taken from the computers retrieved by the TART, we know that the person we need is named James Possible. Further analysis of connected systems has indicated that he was smuggled out of the immediate area. We are hopeful that we will find him without too much delay."

The other puny men at the table nodded their agreement although none were bold enough to raise their eyes to look any of the warriors in the eye.

"We believe that he is the largest male in this image", one analyst timidly produced the picture taken from the lab.

Warmonga reached down and picked up the tablet showing the family picture of the Possibles.

"I saw this woman when I met with the Great Blue. Look at how the man has his arm around her. The smaller ones are probably their offspring. They're mates. She showed no sign of the mate-hunger when I saw her, he must be close by."

"Excuse me, Ma'am," one of the puny men spoke up typing on a tablet then sliding it across the table, never raising his eyes up to meet hers, "This James Possible has made an artificial mate. He has no mate-hunger because he can use this surrogate to satisfy his needs. Perhaps his mate has a surrogate also?"

"What?!" Red eyes flashing with outrage, she reached out and snatched up the tablet. "Abomination!" she muttered flipping through pictures, schematics, and design notes. Slamming the tablet down on the table so hard a spiderweb of cracks appeared on the screen, she whirled on Warhok.

"Would you use a surrogate instead of me?!" she demanded, rage making her red eyes change to the darker color of fresh blood.

"I cannot imagine that any surrogate could possibly interest me much less satisfy me. How could a surrogate be programmed to have your intelligence, your fire, your passion? What manner of engineering could create a body so pleasing to look at, touch and taste?" Holding her tightly, in a manner to prevent her from gesturing with her right arm with its very sharp hooked blade, he continued, "You must admit that mate surrogates would allow people like this James Possible to focus on developing technologies for long periods of time. Let these primitive sheep have their abominable personal practices as long as they make wool for us to shear."

The fire in her eyes turned to smoldering desire. Pushing his larger but unresisting body out the door, they were soon gone.

"Orders, Captain?"

The Captain wasn't sure who asked, this custom of subordinates not looking warriors in the face sometimes seemed a bit stupid.

"Find out where they are hiding this James Possible. Send the designs and data files for the surrogate to Engineering, I want to see if they can make a surrogate suitable for a Lowardian…"

"Gladly, my Captain…"

"Keep me informed on your progress, the wormhole technology will cover our expenses and make us a small profit by itself, the surrogate technology would be all profit. Given what we have simply stumbled over, this planet is looking more and more attractive for looting."

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Middleton General Hospital)**

General Falco had pretty much given up on coming out of this situation covered in fame and glory.

"Are these the only records of the patient transfer that you have?" he managed not to snarl at the receptionist.

"Yes, General. The transfer order paperwork was signed by Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the attendants were Susan Jones and Anthony Jones. I don't know Dr. Jekyll, but these records show that he is a psychiatrist with admitting privileges at this hospital. Let me check admitting records… Looks like Dr. Jekyll discharged Dr. Porter yesterday morning and Dr. Possible last night. Perhaps you should call his office…Let's see, it's 636-555-3226. Is there anything else I can help you with today?" the receptionist ended smiling sweetly.

"No, thank you for your help." The General had learned long ago that yelling and pounding on a civilian's desk was ineffectual. He had also noticed a couple of very large orderlies suddenly just hanging around in the reception area.

"General Falco? My name is Derrick Duhei. I'm from the Department of Military Assistance, perhaps, I could be of help with locating James Possible…"

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Yamanouchi)**

"Ron, go with Mom, it will be OK," a fully MMP charged Raven gave her boyfriend a hug and chaste kiss, "You go fix Daddy. While you are doing that, we'll go talk to Jim and Tim." Really, her Ronnie was adorable the way he worried about her sometimes. At least when he wasn't charged up with MMP. Right now he was 'powered down' because her mom didn't want him to charge up until she started the procedure with Daddy. He could be such an ass when he was high on the power…

"Rufus, take care of her. Raven, don't do anything rash until we can all talk about it," he called as she waved over her shoulder and walked off in the direction of the infirmary. They had things to pick up first before finding the Tweebs.

"Let's get going, Ronald, I want to run a preliminary test with James as soon as we can," Mr. Stoppable and Hana led the young man across the courtyard and to the path that would take them outside the grounds to the quiet, secluded space where they had waited for the alien to leave. James was there waiting for them.

"C'mon, Mrs. Dr. P, Tōgai-sensei, you know that KP isn't thinking straight when she's powered up with that much MMP," Ron argued with the two people who walked beside him each holding an arm to help keep him from the occasional face-plant due to unreliable legs.

"You have no room to complain, Stoppable-san, you are ten times as arrogant, haughty, and aggressive as Raven when you both are powered up and sparring," pointed out Tōgai-sensei.

"Yes, but I'm not going to see someone about getting possessed!" the blond objected.

"It's not exactly possession, Ronald, they aren't going to do anything real to Kimmy, just make it look like real. You know, when I was carrying Kimmy, I had these awful cravings for marshmallows on hot dogs…"

"When Jean was carrying Ron, just the smell of a hot dog could make her hurl," Ron's dad offered. "But only if she was looking at one of those twirly rides at a carnival..."

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Yamanouchi)**

"Hey Tweebs, wow, that's really cool ink," said Raven.

"Hey sis, what's with the flattery? What do you want?" replied Tim.

"You must want something if you're telling us we're cool," added Jim.

The boys noticed a third person standing behind her and Kamiko; they exploded with questions,

"Is that Erica?"  
"Is Dad here?"  
"Wow, she really looks like Mom!"  
"How come you haven't blown it up?"  
"Has Ron **seen** it?"  
"Has Ron **kissed** it?"

Raven's left eye twitched as she exploded, "TWEEBS! BACK OFF!" Tim was examining the joints in its hand while Jim was pressing some sort of instrument against its stomach. Both guiltily took a step back when their sister yelled at them.

"High-pressure syntho-gel, can't morph," Jim whispered to Tim.

"You can talk to Erica and she can tell you about her engineering and stuff later. She also has all your Dad's and Dr. Porter's computer files," Raven said, "but first we want to ask you to do something for me. Rufus can fill you in on the what and why, the how is something you should know. The when is now."

The pre-prom Kim could never have asked this out loud, but the post-prom, MMP charged Kim was eager to ask it just to see their reactions.

"Rufus? OK, sure Sis, what can we do for you?"

"I need you boys to make me pregnant."

" **WHAT**?"

For several moments, the two diminutive geniuses simply stared at her, open-mouthed. Finally, Jim looked at Tim. "There isn't any way we're getting out of this without getting beaten up, is there?"

"And that's if we are lucky…"

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Forest outside Yamanouchi)**

The cave tunnel wasn't straight but had gentle S-curves so that it wasn't long until the outside light was blocked. Small motion-detection LED lights came on as they went forward and turned back off a short time after they passed. Or when Hana passed, she was happily dancing back and forth just to see the lights turn on and off.

"Are you sure we couldn't do this back in my lab," Tōgai-sensei lamented, "Just imagine the data I could be collecting!"

"Wade says that hackers plus some Air Force General are looking for James. This is the most secure, secret place in the area; or at least, the most secure, secret place that he'll tell me about," the redhead replied.

"Whoa, nice digs," the blond looked around as the tunnel ended in a room that you could easily use for basketball as long as you didn't get too carried away with bleachers. Spotting an old friend, he shook off his help and carefully walked over,

"Lenard! How ya doing, buddy! Slip me some feeler!" Ron stood, mostly stable, and held up his hand. A cockroach bigger than a pair of large dumpsters tapped its feet in excitement emitting a series of hisses and clicks and gently slapped a feeler against the blond's hand. Both physicians and his Dad smiled to see the blond chatter with the monster-sized bug. Hana seemed to consider it a large piece of playground equipment. Lenard seemed to go with the flow, lifting the leg the little girl was hanging onto up into the air.

A door opened on the other side and a man with graying temples stepped out.

"Ronald, I want to apologize for the things I've done against you," said James Possible.

"What things exactly, Mr. Dr. P?" the blond wobbled and would have fallen if the two physicians hadn't caught up to him and steadied him.

"I, I'm not sure I remember everything Ronald, but I know it was bad."

"Then let's see if we can fix your memory and then you can apologize, OK. Mr. Dr. P?" there was a bit of a goofy grin on the blond's face. That look made James feel better about himself and his relationship with his children. **All his children**.

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Yamanouchi)**

Tim and Jim sat on both sides of the small bed, each holding one of their sister's hands. She was laying back sweating and swearing. The twins carefully kept their eyes focused on her face not daring to look lower on her body, certainly not low enough to see the cause of her pain.

"Are you Tweebs sure you made it as small as possible?" the girl managed to get out between waves of pain.

"Well, we added fifteen percent to our calculated minimum mass,"  
"just in case, better safe than sorry, you know."

"I will kill you both, I will make it slow and painful…" her growl morphed into a moan of pain.

"Rufus, C'mon buddy, she's still hurting! Blue harder!"  
"Kamiko, can you give her another pain shot?"

The P.A was kneeling between the girl's legs watching for signs of bleeding and monitoring the insertion.

"Raven, do you want me to give you another dose of painkiller?"

"Hell, Yes! Damned if I ever have children if it hurts this much!"

The P.A stuck a preloaded syringe into the girl's thigh and pressed the plunger. Tossing it into a wastepaper basket along with a dozen other empties, she moved both hands to the junction of her patient's legs checking for bleeding.

Rufus was making a growling noise reflecting the effort he was applying to Raven's body.

Raven relaxed as the drug took effect.

"It still hurts like a bitch," she said, "but I just don't care."

"Sorry" squeaked the mole rat who was currently causing his friend's abdomen to glow like there was a blue fifty-watt bulb under her skin.

"Well, in a normal pregnancy, a woman's uterus expands from the size of a pear to the size of a grapefruit over about 12 weeks. We are forcing that change in," checked her watch, "a bit over three hours using painkillers, hormones but mostly MMP."

The combination of the relaxation made possible by the painkiller and the application of MMP by Rufus finished the last of the required expansion in Raven's muscle tissues. Kamiko watched in a mixture of wonder and horror as the last of a blunt tentacle shape withdrew into the young woman's body.

"Raven, That's it. I'm going to check your cervix, OK?"

"Knock yourself out, Doc," said her patient, her speech slurring a little from the exhaustion and painkillers.

A quick visual check showed little damage to the 'gatekeeper' of her uterus and she was happy that there was no sign of bleeding from torn muscle tissue. Everything had stretched without damage, but not without pain.

"Good job Rufus," she pulled off a glove to reach up and give the Monkey Master Molerat a long, full-body pet.

* * *

 **STD 2018- (A-1 Industrial Seating and Partitions)**

Derrick walked out of the entrance lobby into the parking lot to wait for his men. His orders were clear, 'don't mess with the Possible women'. Normally only a kindergarten lawyer would argue that didn't include their father and husband, but in this case, he was only 'assisting' the Air Force to locate Dr. Possible to make sure he was OK. And truly, he wasn't really messing with James Possible, he was going to 'interview' Wade Load, Team Possible's communications guy to inquire about the location of the Possibles.

He stepped out as a large black sedan followed by a black panel van stopped beside him. Excellent! Just as he requested, they brought a van to carry off Mr. Load's computer equipment for analysis and reverse engineering. Eagerly getting in the passenger seat, he failed to notice that the driver, already dressed in black with a balaclava covering his face, was at least thirty pounds lighter and several inches shorter than the usual black ops team member he had borrowed in the past.

As the sedan pulled out of the parking lot onto the main road, he suddenly realized that he hadn't told the driver their target's address. To avoid anyone from 'poaching' his research, he had not entered Wade Load's address in any of the request messages for getting assistance from black ops.

"Are you guys Ops Team 5?" Maybe there was another black op going on today and he just got in the wrong car.

There was a snicker behind him,

"No Duhei-san, we are Yamanouchi Team Orange. I am Renzo and the driver today is Ichiro. We have picked you up to discuss your future involvement with the Mountain. That is, should you desire to **have** a future…"

The driver, without taking his eyes off the road, said,

"You can start by using the cellphone in your pocket to cancel the request for your black ops team. You may, of course, fake the call and depend on them to come to rescue you. That would be fine for us, we have not had enough hard combat practice on this trip. You might survive that experience."

"What do you want with me?" a nervous Derrick asked.

"My suggestion was to leave your body in a ditch," said the driver.

"Ichiro! This man is our guest.," the black-clad man in the back clapped a hand on their passenger's shoulder. "For some reason, one of Team Cobra's operatives thought that maybe you could be worth more than worm's meat. There are enemies coming and perhaps you and yours could cooperate in defense this time. If you can summon a bit of courage and honor."

Derrick remembered Major Smith's story about the last time they tried a cooperative operation. He decided that he could do better this time. He pulled out his cellphone,

"Hello? This is Derrick Duhei. I need to cancel operation Flatulent Falcon. … Yes, I know they are waiting for me, tell them I owe everyone beers at the Little Mountain Oyster Brewpub. I'll be in touch for when."

Putting his cellphone away, he asked, "So where are we going?"

"Why to see Wade Load and the rest of the Ninja of course…"

* * *

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

If it's a Ninja then it's a safe bet that it was directly copied from or inspired by Sentinel103 and his "Once Again" stories.

 **Mea Culpa** There is roughly a 12-hour difference between Japan and the United States. That means that early morning in one spot is early evening in the other. So don't pay too much attention to the concept of simultaneity in this story.

 **Authors Note** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and plot bunny wranglers.

Published Nov 17th, 2018


	19. Chapter 19

**STD 2018- (Cave in forest outside Yamanouchi)**

"How does this work, Ronald, what can I do to help?" Anne asked. She had not felt this clueless about anything related to the healing arts in decades. She was constantly learning new techniques and seeking out new ideas to help her patients, but for years, everything new she learned had been built on the base of her previous knowledge. She knew, of course, that treating family members was a bad idea in general for any physician, but it wasn't in her nature to just be a spectator. At the very least she could be a cheerleader, maybe.

"I'm not sure Mrs. Dr. P. With KP, it's easy and natural, it just works. Maybe it was that time that we spent in each other's…", Ron started to say before getting a frantic wave off from Anne standing behind James.

"Well, you know, people have always claimed that we were attached at the hip as kids," the young man extemporized, catching on that somehow, either James didn't know the pair had swapped bodies, or Anne didn't want to remind him about it.

One corner of the huge room was set up as an entertainment area, with several couches, small tables, and comfy chairs.

"How about you sit on that couch and have Mr. Dr. P lean against you, so you can put an arm around him. I think the physical connection with someone who loves him will help."

Anne walked to the couch, slipping off her shoes and arranged herself lengthwise near the end of the couch so her husband could sit between her legs and recline back against her. Ron dragged over a comfy chair and sat cross-legged in it.

"Mr. P, this will sort of be like you're an antenna and Mrs. Dr. P is the ground plane." The blond mystical student tried to explain in a way the senior engineer would understand. Not that he had a clue about antennas, but thought the words seemed familiar from somewhere… Maybe " _Zombie Mayhem: ARRL Special Centennial Edition_ "? "?

"Actually, Ronald, in a real antenna, the ground plane is created using physical antenna elements mounted to be 90 degrees out of phase…"

"Mr. P, you look warm and comfortable snuggled in your wife's arms, so enjoy the moment and relax."

"But I was just pointing out that the typical diagram showing the ground plane as a disk with a monopole…" he started to engineer-splain.

His wife bent down and kissed the top of his head, "Honey, be quiet and do what the man says," she interrupted.

"Yes, dear."

Anne wiggled a bit to get more comfortable. This couch was designed for serious snuggling, she thought. Looking around she saw Ron was now covered by a soft but perceptible blue glow, Gene had pulled up another chair to sit by his son, and Dr. Tōgai was in another chair holding a small video camera.

She started to panic as a blue haze spread over her vision and the room seemed to move. Feeling a weight on her shoulder, she looked and saw a little blue ghostly kitten. She saw its mouth move and heard the same deep, inhuman voice speak as they heard before, but this time it spoke quietly to only her.

"Relax, Physician. Ronald will be reconnecting memory areas in your mate's brain. Someone needs to be with your mate as his memory areas are reconnected. That is, someone needs to make sure that your mate doesn't panic and start to fight the process."

"Wouldn't Ronald be better at that? I've no experience in working on brains from the inside. And…Shouldn't you be a monkey?"

"Monkeys tend to bite and throw poop, kittens are cuddlier and more relaxing. Ronald needs to start by anchoring the memory connection thread to a recent memory before hunting back to older ones. He is not ready to observe people he respects as parents being intimate with each other."

"Intimate?" Then the physician remembered a very recent encounter she had with her husband at the Japanese inn. Blushing a little, she replied, "Oh, well, the kid's surely seen better on the Internet…"

Her senses swam as the room faded from view. She heard a deep, inhuman chuckle, "Perhaps we will have to, as the saying goes, agree to disagree…" She opened her eyes to find herself seated in a movie theater, facing the screen. The seat had an iced drink in a cupholder and she had a bag of popcorn in her lap. Several rows in front of her, sitting cross-legged on a cushion facing her with his back to the screen was Ron. He held the end of a long cord and had a basket of small paper lanterns in front of him.

"Mrs. Dr. P, if you want sound, use the headphones next to you. If Mr. Dr. P starts to panic because the memory upsets him, stand up and you can step into the memory and calm him down. If you need to stop, then simply say "Artichoke Hearts".

"OK…"

'Artichoke hearts? Was that a safe word?' Anne wondered exactly what the blond boy and her Kimmy had been up to. Putting on the headphones, she saw the blond pick up a paper lantern from the basket and string it on the cord. The screen lit up and she saw herself at the table in the inn, sipping tea and talking on a video comms app on a tablet. The scene changed, and the theater disappeared. Looking up, as she found herself laying down, she watched herself move much closer and heard,

"Morning dear, how are you feeling? Want coffee before or after?"

She was experiencing her husband's memory through his eyes! She watched herself sit upright and untie her belt, allowing her robe to fall open. She felt a strong reaction in a rapidly expanding body part that she didn't have. Damn _!_ Was that really what she looked like? She didn't look that sexy! 'Must be his emotions affecting this memory,' she decided. The woman on the screen reached down to caress that part of her dream body that she didn't really have, sweeping her away in a joyous maelstrom of love, lust, and pleasure.

 **STD 2018- (Lowardian Fleet, the edge of the Solar System)**

The Captain of captains nodded in greeting as Warhok and Warmonga walked into the conference and sat down behind the other captains. They were a few minutes late and from the faint lip prints that he saw on Warhok's cosmetic tribal markings, he suspected he knew why. 'Warmonga is going to be the death of him if he doesn't pay closer attention to what's going on,' he thought to himself. Standing, he addressed the room:

"We are going to commence with a smash and grab of the planet as soon as we get 'The Great Blue' up to the fleet." Pulling up a projection of the local galactic star map, he continued, waving a hand over a section of neighboring stars, "Imperial forces have been reported snooping around in this area. While we have some time, we should not get into any extended operations in case they show up sooner than we expect and we have to run for it. The wormhole generator and surrogate designs will make us a decent profit if we leave now."

Their leader grinned, "But I think we can spend some time looting to increase our profit margins."

Changing the display to that of a blue planet, he pointed to a large land mass, "Intelligence reports that this is the home of the Great Blue and his female. The lab where the wormhole generator was developed is also here. This is where I propose we focus our looting."

Waving his hand, the planet rotated to show the other side, "We will destroy these islands as a demonstration of our might and to help convince the locals that we are not to be disobeyed. The islands are on the other side of the planet from the Great Blue's home, so that should minimize the blowback when he finds out. At the same time, we can threaten to do the same to his home if he fails to cooperate."

"I will leave immediately to retrieve the Great Blue," Warmonga spoke from the back of the room.

"I will start the bombardment ships moving into the correct trajectory. What level of destruction is desired, Captain?" an old captain asked as he stood up.

Warmonga dragged her mate out of the room as the Captain of captains and the Captain in charge of bombardment discussed reimbursement for the cost of the required iridium and tungsten carbide slugs

"Come, my love, let's leave before they think up something for you to do. The trip planetside is long and cold and I don't want you even thinking about using a surrogate because we are separated for no good reason."

 **STD 2018- (Cave in the forest outside Yamanouchi)**

"Artichoke Hearts!" The theater disappeared, and she was back in the cave, a worried looking Ron hurrying over to her.

"Mrs. Dr. P! Are you OK? What's the matter?"

"Ronald, I need a short break, please and thank you. I love holding James, but he is pressing down on my bladder…" Startled, her voice trailed off because the Ron standing next to her was translucent, a second, more solid Ron was still sitting in the Lotus position hovering a couple of inches over the chair cushion. A chill ran down her body as James was lifted off her and the moving air cooled her body where her hot husband had made her a little sweaty. (For multiple meanings of the word 'hot')

"I'll hurry, Ronald," she said, sliding out onto the floor and standing up. As she walked to find the bathroom and someplace to get a drink of water, she thought about details from her recent trip through her husband's memories. Ronald wasn't finding them in any specific order. That made sense as the way the brain stores memories isn't well understood. Most memories were, well, boring. At least to her. For example, the ones where he spent literally hours poring over equations and pages of computer source code. Fortunately, it appeared that for many memories, Ronald just had to 'sample' it before putting it on his cord. Some were strange, like that whacked out dream about Kimmy. Others were stunning. His creation of Erica started out disturbing, but as he progressed on its creation, she noticed that James practically worshiped her as he based the synthodrone on her appearance. The huge number of pictures of her that he had on his work computer was staggering and she couldn't remember him taking that many. His attention to detail when he was finishing Erica's body was both humbling and a little embarrassing. There was no longer any doubt in her mind that he saw her, his wife, as the most beautiful and desirable woman in existence.

She had only once stood up to join a memory, that was the time she had seen on recorded video, the time where he declared that he was a 'bad mad scientist' and eventually collapsed. Except now, it was her that held him not Erica. This time she held him, sobbing with sorrow, regret, and failure while his body was wracked by fever as she told him that he was a good man, a good scientist, a good husband whose wife loved him very much. She didn't lie to him, while at times she thought he was clueless, maybe even an idiot, especially when it came to his Kimmie-Cub, he was a good man at heart. And she loved him.

Walking back into the main room, James and Tōgai-sensei were gone and Gene held a glass of something to his son.

"Ronald, where's James? What's happening?"

"It turns out that I only had to anchor the other end of the connection to be done. Sensei T is helping Mr. P get oriented, they are walking around a little. He believes that the two of you should spend a couple of days at the inn to let his mind solidify the connections and heal up completely. A couple of Team Panther Ninjas are standing by to escort the two of you."

"But you and Kimmy need to prepare to go back with that alien woman, there is surgery that needs to be done…"

"No time. We have the MMP to keep us functional until we can get back. Please, take Mr. P and heal for a couple of days. Then go back to Middleton. We will try to meet you there."

Anne looked at the blond's serious face. He was correct, they all needed to get out of Japan if the MMP Avatar was correct. For both everyone's safety and to let her use her own surgical team, not the misogynist idiots at Tokyo General. Still, another couple of days here should be safe enough, she was afraid that James would be snatched up by the government as soon as they landed in the U.S.

"Anne?" James's voice was hoarse, but his eyes were clear as he took long strides across the room to her, "I love you." He looked around after embracing his wife, "Ronald? I need to apologize… Where has that boy gone?"

"He's gone off to check on Kimberly," said Mr. Stoppable

 **STD 2018- (Yamanouchi)**

"Why the tears, young one?" The glowing blue spider monkey crouching on her stomach should have hurt her overly stretched muscles, but the pressure was soothing. The dark-haired young woman was resting on her bed in the dormitory as the sun set behind the trees. She lay there dressed only in a Mad Dogs jersey, the process she had just undergone left her body overheated, it would be a little longer before she shed enough excess heat to need a blanket. Kamiko had been quietly checking on her periodically.

"I don't want to die," Raven replied simply as she figured that when you are talking to a mystical being it was best to be short and to the point.

"When I was explaining what you needed to do to fulfill your part of the prophecy and its dangers, you told me something like "Not a problem, I am already dead."

"Well, yes, the girl I used to be died the day I killed Drakken and Shego. But the current me does have a few things she wants to do before the end. Ron is a good man, he deserves to live, but he's trapped in the same prophecy. And…to be honest, I'm afraid."

"You don't have to die…"

"No? Being the 'Mother of Shiva, the Destroyer of Worlds' doesn't sound like a recipe for a long and happy life any more than being the 'Great Blue, Defender of Oppressed Peoples'."

"Neither does 'Team Possible, Saviors of Earth', but somehow, I think that sounds better, don't you?"

The dark-haired girl barked a bitter laugh, "Sounds better on our memorial, you mean."

"That's the spirit!" exclaimed the monkey.

"What?!"

"In order for you to have a memorial, this world and some of the people who love you must survive. Sounds like you still have hope." The monkey put its hands on her shoulders and gave her a serious look.

"Prophecies warn of peril and give people hope but are hard on those who carry them out. Magic swords, mystical powers, and changeling babies are usually only given to heroes who have no chance without them and quite frankly, little chance with them. You don't need a magic sword to get a kitten out of a tree."

"I'm not a hero, I killed Shego and Drakken. Ron's the hero, he saved the world while I skipped out to go to a stupid party."

"Young one, neither of your stories are finished yet."

There was a knock at the door and her brother poked his head in as the monkey faded from view.

"Sis? You awake?" he spoke softly.

"Hey, Jim, where's your other half?"

"Tim's flirting with a Ninja named Luki. It was too painful to watch so we came to give you this." Her brother walked over to her bed followed by Erica.

Erica handed his sister an obsidian rod about three fingers wide and maybe eight inches long. It had gold squares about the size of a fingertip randomly scattered on its surface. A rubber handlebar grip covered nearly half of its length.

"What is it?"

"The Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer." Jim explained then seeing the look of skepticism she gave him, he quickly continued, "Seriously, what you guys were always recovering was the container that held this. It was filled with liquid nitrogen and provided an electrical interface to a few of these interface squares. We added the rubber grip to cover the most dangerous ones, that we know about."

"Dangerous ones?"

"Uh, yeah. Shuffle your feet on the carpet, touch the right two squares and 'Whoops, there goes an area the size of Nevada. As far as we can tell, the PDVI is indestructible. It will be laying at the bottom of the crater."

"And I want to carry this, why?"

Jim reached out and gently touched her baby bump, "It's not for you, it's for little Shiva, just give it to her, she'll know what to do. Take it with you, it will appear to a security scan as a harmless wooden stick. Unless they scan it with an electron or neutrino particle beam."

"OK, note to self, put in checked luggage, not carry on. How did you get it?"

Erica spoke up, "I took it from James's prototype faster-than-light wormhole system. When he collapsed, I collected copies of all his computer files and pulled this out of his generator. The objective was to make sure that he could keep working on it when he got better. A small blue primate told me to give to you."

"You didn't find a monkey talking to you, strange?" Raven examined the object, careful not to touch the gold squares.

"James was talking to people who weren't there before he collapsed, we had a briefing from a possessed naked mole rat, you are lying there with a syntho-child in your uterus, and there are small paw prints on your shirt that look like a primate was recently standing there. My sense of what is strange appears to be poorly calibrated," the synthetic woman explained.

There was a thud as Ron stepped into the room and promptly fell over.

"I'm OK!" the blond struggled to his feet using a staff for support. At least his pants were still in place. Thankful for small favors, he made his way over to the bed where Raven was resting,

"Tim, Erica, I want a moment alone with **KP** , please."

 **STD 2018- (Middleton)**

"General Falco?" The General was walking out of a meeting called to discuss "The Alien Situation". A meeting where he found himself pushed to the side by the President and his advisers once they learned that he was not in possession of Dr. Possible's FTL/wormhole technology. In fact, the meeting had been taken over, to his great disgust, by Diplomats and Sociology/Philosophy Eggheads. The man speaking to him wore a green beret and the rank insignia of a French Rear Admiral.

"I am Admiral Louis de Mellivora. Could we go have a cup of coffee and a quiet talk?"

The General looked more closely at the man's insignia, the badge on his beret had a sailing ship with a sword and the words Commandos Marine. The Special Operations Forces of the French Navy. He dimly recalled delivering some of those people somewhere for a mission.

"Certainly Admiral, I know an out of the way coffee shop around the corner. You are a long way from home, no?"

"True, I am on a recruiting trip of sorts, we have a scholarship that I want to award. The two young people I came to interview are not here, but these visitors of yours cause some of us, concern."

"Some of us?" the two men walked out the door of the building and into the sunshine of the early afternoon.

"Yes, I have been in touch with battalion commanders from several United States Seal and Ranger Units. We are all distressed that the proper preparations are not being made…"

 **STD 2018- (Yamanouchi)**

" **KP,** you were supposed to talk to other people like your mom before you did anything drastic!" Ron quietly growled as soon as the door to her room shut. He didn't say 'other people like your mom and me', but she still heard it.

 **"Ronald,** it's **Raven** and I only did what I had to do!" was her equally quiet, heated reply, "It's not like I volunteered for this damned prophecy stuff!"

The blond ran his fingers through his hair, she saw him bite back the first few angry responses and finally say, "May I touch it?"

Surprised that he wasn't starting a fight much less continuing to chew her out, she lifted up her butt, pulling her Mad Dog jersey up to expose her stomach.

His hand hovered over her baby bump. His lower arm ignited with a soft chuff sound. He gently lowered a hand covered in soft blue flames onto her hot skin, sending waves of cool pain relief spreading from his touch like ripples on a calm pond.

"Thanks, that feels great… Baby, what's wrong?" she looked at her boyfriend's increasingly distraught face.

"This isn't right. Somewhere along the line, everything went upside down. I am supposed to watch your back and make sure you come home unhurt, not lead you into deadly danger. This," he gently caressed her bump, "should be a sign of hope and joy, not a harbinger of death and destruction. You should have stayed in Middleton. You know that there is no place that could hold you if you didn't want to stay and you have friends who would have busted you out if there were any problems."

"Does that include you?"

"I would have come back in a heartbeat to help you." Was that a tear her young man wiped from his eye?

"Well, that's why I'm here. The original dream that I had with Hana… I told you goodbye at the airport and watched you leave for Japan and never saw you again. You left Rufus with me, we ended up working with Special Ops in the future. He was the one who could disable the defenses of a lair and shut everything down. I was just his handler, the person who could get him to where he needed to be. I was the sidekick, which, to be honest, I found more than a little ironic. The sad part was that you were killed defending Japan. You died alone and left me alone. When I woke up, I swore that I would follow you to help you defend these people or die at your side trying."

"I… I don't know what to say."

She held up hands shaking with palsy. "Say that for tonight, you'll leave off with the MMP and we'll be just Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable, two life-long best friends who are falling in love. In the morning, we have to prepare and that means charging up and staying charged to the end. Face it, when we're charged, we're barely even friends, so let me have one night as normal as we can manage, OK?"

"Let me power us up enough to get ready for bed? I'll pull my bed over to push it against yours."

Kamiko found him helping Raven out of bed to go brush her teeth, her abdominal muscles were painful even with enough MMP to help her hands stop shaking. The P.A fussed over them both and helped Ron fix the two beds into one bed.

Finally tucked in and alone, they lay with Raven in Ron's arms (Ron was the 'big spoon'). Ron's hand tended to wander, her baby bump was irresistible to him. The problem was that it hurt for him to press there without the MMP.

Without thinking she put her hands on his and moved them down. No, that still hurts, although his hands became motionless. "Oops," she thought, "I shouldn't push him to steal third." Reflexively, she pulled his hands up above the bump where it didn't hurt, but her boyfriend's large hands found something new, firm yet squeezable to focus on. (A/N web search for **xkcd #540)**

"Kind of getting mixed signals here, Raven," the blond teased.

"Ronnie, is it OK if we don't do 'it' tonight? I'm still in a lot of pain down there."

"It?" 'Damn it,' he thought, 'did I miss a signal?'

"I meant sex, it's not like you could get me pregnant right now."

"Sex?" Ron tried to sound cool, but the tiny squeak in his voice betrayed him.

"You know," she thought out loud, "If I had it to do over again, I'd make sure that we were dating by our sophomore year. Then by the Junior Prom, we'd either be a couple, or we'd have split up and just be best friends and mission partners. And I'd make sure that we never, ever did a mission alone."

"What if you got sick?"

"We'll have to get another partner or two. And just maybe it might be you down with the flu."

"Nah, I have the Stoppable Fortress of Fortitude, I don't get sick."

Raven giggled. Actually, did Goths giggle? 'Probably was a shadow of the old Kim giggling,' she thought, 'At any rate, for this moment, everything is as it should be even if things go to heck in the morning,'

The pair fell asleep talking about the "do-over Team Possible". That is, not what they should change in the future, but what they would change if they could start over. The end of the foreseeable future looked close, grim, and final. But it wasn't all grim, first, they spent some time playing around first and second base.

 **STD 2018- (Middleton)**

The large black sedan pulled up in a driveway and parked. Derrick pulled out his cellphone and checked Boggle Maps. This address was listed as the home of Kimberly Possible.

His door opened and a black-clad man motioned him out.

"Why are we at the home of Kimberly Possible?" he asked trying to feel like he had some control. Knowledge was power and he wanted to show that he knew things.

"The Possibles are out of the country at present. We are house-sitting and making use of the extra power and the extreme Internet bandwidth available in her brothers' bedrooms."

A Japanese woman stepped off the porch nodding to the black-clad man and greeted Derrick,

"Duhei-san, our paths meet again. Come inside the house and let us see if we can have a more productive meeting than our last."

"Ms. Chin. I wish to apologize for my earlier behavior. My superiors were most displeased by my actions. I was arrogant and acted stupidly. I will try my best to do better." Right now, Derrick drew no comfort from the Glock G26 Subcompact sitting in his shoulder holster. Not when he remembered confronting her and the surgeon. Later that night, lying in bed, he realized that he had been lucky to walk away alive.

"We shall see Duhei-san, right now we wish to see if your forces are worth adding to the defense of this land. Please, step inside, we do not want the neighbors to complain about disreputable people congregating on the premises."

Derrick followed the woman into the house trying to decide whether he had been insulted.

"Did General Falco tell you why he was looking for Dr. James Possible?"

"No, he did not."

"We have some surveillance videos that we wish to show you. Have you ever considered that life on other planets might not be friendly…"

 **STD 2018- (Rocky area used for MMP practice at Yamanouchi)**

Raven slipped her pistol back in her holster as she backflipped out of reach of a staff strike by her remaining foe. Three of Team Panther sat on the grass, bright green paint splotches on their heads marking them as 'Out of the match'. Head-sized rocks randomly orbited the dark-haired girl, many decorated with bright blue splotches and streaks as they had gotten in the way of pistol shots, thrown knives, or spinning shuriken. It was two against six and Team Panther had decided that quickly overwhelming the girl would let them more easily take out the Monkey Master. They were wrong. Ron held his two at bay while his orbiting rocks protected his teammate while her connection to the MMP let her time her shots to go between rocks. She even managed to strike home with at least a half-dozen spinning kicks while her rock 'armor' protected her against counterstrikes.

Her last foe held his staff in a guard position and grinned at her.

"Time for lunch, Monkey-Boy, let's finish this!" she cheerily called out as she pulled out a very short looking nightstick, rubber handlebar grip, black with gold spots scattered over it. As the rocks dropped to the ground, the dark girl and the Ninja charged each other, the Ninja wanted to shout with glee as his opponent leaped up in the air intending her knee to strike him in the chin. Committed and airborne, she couldn't change direction! He started to step to the side, when a rock rolled against his ankle, tripping him. Looking up to see a downward strike that would have crushed his skull in a real fight, she pulled the strike and he only felt the lightest tap of her stick on his temple.

"I am dead!" he groaned to the jeering and applause of the other three of his teammates sitting in the grass.

"Well done Raven!" cheered Warhok sitting with Warmonga on a boulder off to the side.

"Too flashy, I saw neither power nor toughness. A true warrior doesn't need a projectile weapon," sneered Warmonga, "Let's see how the Great Blue fares."

Ron's opponents were the largest fighters in Team Panther, easily three inches taller and twenty pounds heavier, none of that extra weight was fat, but hard muscle.

The sapphire enshrouded Monkey Master grounded himself to improve his movement ability, He gave his opponents a short salute by placing his fist in his palm and the battle was on. The three fighters all decided to go weaponless, to be honest, that meant they fought without implements because their entire bodies were weapons. For some reason, Ron limited himself by keeping himself firmly connected to the ground. This made his blocks, punches, and kicks stronger, but at the cost of dodging and maneuvering.

His two opponents didn't take polite turns attacking as seen in movies, they attacked simultaneously. Ron focused on the attacker coming from his left, blocking that attack and delivering a solar plexus strike that left the Ninja laying on the ground, gasping for breath. The one on the right connected with a spinning kick delivered along with two punches, striking Ron in the thigh, ribs, but only a glancing hit to the face.

The Monkey Master grunted with pain and spun in place, catching his opponent before he could recover with a kick to the knee, sending him to the ground then followed with a dropping elbow strike to the throat. The strike was pulled short, this was an exhibition match, not a fight to the death.

And just like that, the battle was over.

"Impressive…" said Warhok, unsettled at the gleam in his battlemate's eyes.

"Magnificent! Did you see how he discarded all trickery and beat the two larger warriors with brute force?" She had expected him to use a style that was called Monkey Kung Fu on this planet. A style that showcased speed, agility, and fluid attacks, not just raw power and strength. Warmonga knew that whatever else the planet provided, this human was the grand prize.

The two aliens walked over to the MMP-powered pair who were talking to their Master Sensei, probably getting feedback on their performance.

"So, what do ya think? We good enough to play in your reindeer games?" asked the male.

"Reindeer games?" wondered Warhok.

"You were magnificent," gushed Warmonga, looking at Ron with admiration, "both in your own fighting and helping your mate with her opponents. We invite you to join our cause." Turning to Raven she said, "Not that your fighting skills were totally inadequate, but your time would be better spent bearing children for your mate."

The tall green woman's eyes narrowed as she examined the annoyed girl closely. There was a small bump visible on her abdomen. Her knowledge of human anatomy was pretty much non-existent. That the girl carrying her mate's child made a lot of sense when one reflected on her part of the fight and how effectively her mate guarded her against physical blows to her midsection.

"But you should come with us anyway. We do not want the Great Blue to suffer from mate-hunger."

Next time on STD 2018 Feels:

"You did WHAT to your sister?"

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

If it's a Ninja then it's a safe bet that it was directly copied from or inspired by Sentinel103 and his "Once Again" stories.

 **Mea Culpa:** There is roughly a 12-hour difference between Japan and the United States. That means that early morning in one spot is early evening in the other. So, don't pay too much attention to the concept of simultaneity in this story.

 **Authors Note:** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and plot bunny wranglers.

Published Dec 7, 2018


	20. Chapter 20

**STD 2018- (Yamanouchi)**

The discussion had quickly shown that while the Lowardians might have been freedom fighters, they certainly felt the ends justified the means. Raven had grave doubts about the means to which they were willing to go; and how casually they went there.

"Let me make sure I understand this situation," Raven demanded, "You are telling me that my father has created a device that can create a cosmic doorway between two places, millions of miles apart. You acquired his plans and a copy of his device, but can't make it work. The United States government has agreed to turn him over to you. However, out of the goodness in your hearts, you'll leave him alone if the Great Blue here," she nodded at Ron, "and I come with you and help you to free one planet from some oppressive regime?"

"Child," Warmonga replied, apparently oblivious to the glare from the dark-haired woman, "you do us an injustice. We are neither common thieves nor strong-armed bandits; we are simply a people who are desperate to gain any advantage against an Empire that wants us dead. I swear that if you help us free the people of Altair-3, we will ask nothing more of you or your world. We will even return you to this backward planet if that is what you wish. Do you really not know the work your father does?" The Lowardian noted that while her hair color was wrong, her face matched the girl in the photo with the scientist. They had to be one and the same!

"She hasn't been on speaking terms with her dad in a while, something about him disapproving this boy she wanted to see," The Great Blue almost sneered, "still, this seems like a good deal to me; you leave Mr. Dr. Possible alone, which satisfies any remnants of loyalty she has for him and gets her off this planet, which means she doesn't have to talk to him. How soon can we leave?"

"We can leave as soon as you are ready," Warhok was a little suspicious, this all seemed too easy. The two Lowardians had started this meeting telling the others that they were in a desperate struggle with an 'evil' empire, but they didn't have to make specific threats against this planet to coerce the Great Blue and his prospective mate to accompany them off-world.

"We'll meet you at your lander about sundown. I need to go wash my hair. Come on, Blue Boy, let's hit the baths…" Standing, Raven nodded to Master Sensei and the two left.

Warhok had little experience with the expressions on the faces of these people, but a face with no expression was universal. Turning to Master Sensei, he asked,

"Do you not approve of the Great Blue coming with us? We do have a prophecy of a Great Blue warrior coming to battle for the people."

"They are my students, not my servants. I advise but command is beyond my authority. Even the people who are supposed to obey me sometimes refuse." Warhok noticed the young woman at the old headmaster's side looked down with a slightly reddened face. The old man continued,

"In our prophecy, the Great Blue fights to protect his people, but he is not guaranteed to succeed or even survive. How does your prophecy end?"

"Living in a castle of gold and gems, standing beside his empress who rules from a throne built on the skulls of their defeated!" The Lowardian woman's eyes shone with excitement. Looking at Warhok, the crimson-eyed giantess, said, "Excuse me for a moment, my love. There is something I wish to check on."

Warhok watched his battle mate walk out of the room. For a nine-foot-tall woman, she could move amazingly quietly.

"Warmonga is young and has watched too many adventure videos. They have taken the original story and made it more exciting for the viewing public. The older stories tell of a darkness ravishing the lands of Lowardia. The Great Blue, with the Empress at his side, saves our people and banishes the darkness never to return for a dozen generations."

"Lowardia is ruled by a woman?" Yori asked.

"Not currently. The Emperor's daughter is young, but she has the aura of a great Battle Captain and the common people of Lowardia love her. Because the Emperor's health is failing, he is expected to step down in favor of his daughter for the sake of the Empire." The alien giant paused a moment, then continued, "the old story speaks of the Great Blue as a mature warrior, powerful in Mystical Arts and experienced in battle. The one we just spoke to seems like an untested youth. I believe he even told Warmonga that he wasn't fully trained. Something isn't quite right."

"Perhaps it is too early to take the Great Blue to Lowardia?" Master Sensei suggested.

Warhok considered that to be a real possibility, but he knew that Warmonga wouldn't hear of waiting and the pirate fleet they had attached themselves to were planning to attack the Great Blue's homeworld. Even if he and his battle mate wanted to have the Empire intervene on this planet's behalf, there wasn't time. No, it was best to take the Great Blue and his female to the fleet where he and Warmonga could keep them out of harm's way and control what news they heard.

"Perhaps he could finish his training with us. At any rate, they have decided to accompany us back to our fleet. If you will excuse me, I need to go check on our lander." The giant warrior stood, although not entirely straight as he was too tall for the room, then walked out.

"Master Sensei," Yori said softly, "This cannot end well. I believe that Ron-san and Kim-san need to remain here among their teachers and friends."

"As I said, I cannot command them, they are strong in will. They believe that there will be violence and they desire for that violence to be as far away from the people that they love as possible," the old headmaster sighed, "Please begin plans to shelter people in Nakano-Sensei's caves, they are defensible against any attack short of a nuclear strike. I am sending Teams Panther and Team Twelve along with most of our students to Nagasaki. I am trusting that a thousand kilometers away will be far enough from the mountain to be safe. Will you go with them?"

"Is that a command, Sensei?"

The headmaster looked with pride and affection at the student that he expected to take his place one day, "No it is not, Yori-san. Even a Master Sensei can learn a new lesson."

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Lowardian Fleet, Edge of Solar System)**

 **(A/N While I know and you, the reader knows, that the Lowardians would not measure time in Earth-based time units, I have found it annoying to translate alien units in my head as I read novels by other authors who introduce that for 'realism'. If that really bothers you then multiply Earth days by .83 to get Lowardian days and then translate that back to Earth days as you read.)**

"Can we trust Warhok?" the junior captain asked. "This Great Blue nonsense sounds like he's delaying if you ask me. It seems odd that such an experienced warrior would show up out of nowhere to join a raiding party."

"He goes where Warmonga goes and she's too eager for fighting and glory to have problems with raiding." The Captain of captains wasn't seeing a serious problem; raiders didn't have the discipline that Imperial Forces had. Still, raider pay was much better although their retirement plan sucked. He had enough loyal fighters to get the job done the way he wanted without Warhok's help.

"That's another problem, she thinks they've found the Great Blue. I can picture Warhok's reaction to finding she's spread her legs for this Great Blue."

"She's flighty, but not that fickle. At least I hope she's not. Best to get on with the looting on schedule. Are the kinetic strikes on schedule for five days from now?"

"Yes. I expect that Warhok will return in four days. The kinetic bombardment ships will be back and reloaded by then. I personally double-checked the target; the strike will hit islands on the other side of the planet from the continent with Dr. Possible's science labs and the Great Blue's home."

"Good," the Captain of captains was pleased, "then we can start to move the fleet to the planet if the scouts report conditions are profitable and if not, then we can see about bending this Great Blue to our will while on route to our next target. At the very least, the scouts should have collected Dr. Possible from the locals by then."

"My vote is that we pull out. My navigator says she has a bad feeling about this system," the junior Captain said.

"Is that the one whose mother was supposedly a witch?"

"Grandmother, actually. And say what you will, she found the last three profitable systems on 'hunches'.

"Maybe we should take our profits and run. We'll discuss it at the next all-captains meeting."

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Yamanouchi Baths)**

"Hey, Ronnie, were you struck color blind?" Nyx called out from where she was soaking with Elsa, "This is the women's side."

"It's OK, ladies, Blue Boy here likes dick as much as I do. Besides, I need his help with my hair," A softly glowing Raven waded to the far back of the pool where there was a spillway where water from the pool ran out onto the rocks behind the building and down a gorge. Beside her walked a laughing blond, also softly glowing blue. Both were totally naked except for a small folded towel on top of their heads.

"I like the dick?" he quietly snickered, "I think I've been insulted."

"Not at all. You are what you are. Besides, Kimberly thinks you have a very nice one. You should be happy with it. You know, when you are all blue, you do seem a little… gay?"

"No, not gay, simply no desire for any of that kind of thing. It's too much a distraction. Are you feeling ignored? Insufficiently lusted after?"

"Maybe a little. Figured that kind of stuff would come with having a boyfriend." Raven was a little surprised at the lack of snark from her companion. Either he wasn't totally charged, or perhaps his natural personality was becoming dominant?

"Maybe in the next turn of the wheel, your BF will be more completely functional when powered up. All teasing aside, I have no experience doing anything with hair. What do you need me to do?"

Raven sat down in the water then stretched out floating on her back with her head close to where excess water exited the pool. "I am betting that if you push extra MMP into me, the hot water and the minerals will help my hair and skin slough off the dyes. Maybe just swish me around a little?"

Ron looked down at his BFF's extra-pale body with its jet-black hair, the flickering of his blue aura reflecting his uncertainty, "The, uh, the carpet matches the drapes, that's a serious dye job. You sure you want to do this?"

"At the time, I **really** didn't want to be Kimberly Ann Possible. Now charge us both up and leave us charged, we don't have time for half measures. It's time for her to come back."

Ron looked a little sad as he gently caressed the bump on her midsection. He placed one hand on her face clamping her nose shut with his thumb and forefinger and his other hand over her pubic bone.

"Big breath," he said and when she complied, he pushed her under the steaming water while gently moving her back and forth. His eyes, which had hints of brown, became solid blue as his body lit with a sapphire glow. Blue streams of energy flowed down his arms, through his hands into her body. Her body was quickly covered in a layer of fine bubbles, causing her to press upward on his hands from the extra buoyancy. Clouds of inky black from her hair, along with chalky white from her body stained the water and were quickly whisked away, not affecting the other bathers.

Allowing her to float back to the surface with a gentle hiss of fine bubbles, he told her, "Breathe easy for a bit, once the water clears, I'll do another rinse. And tell Nyx and Elsa that you're OK before they try to cut out my liver," the young Monkey Master grinned.

A feminine hand lifted out of the water, flashing a thumbs up sign and a voice, muffled by the hand still covering her face was heard to say, "I'm OK, Ronnie's just helping me get the color washed out of my hair and off my skin." She imagined her two friends advancing with drawn blades, Elsa often quoted Kamchak of the Tuchuks: " Where weapons may not be carried, it is well to carry weapons."

Elsa had a different taste in novels.

Elsa and Nyx, in fact, did not carry blades in the baths, but Elsa retracted a garrote back into the bangle she wore on her wrist. Their dorm mates watched in fascination as the foaming, dark, cloudy water quickly flowed out the drain as if by magic. (Well, Nyx first admired the blond's firm butt, but it was only in passing like one might admire a rose without reaching out to pluck it.)

After giving her a command to take a breath and hold it, Ron again submerged his fizzing partner and gently swished her back and forth in the water as he pushed more MMP into her. There was no more dye released into the water, but when he pulled her up onto her feet, he could see that her normal hair and skin colors were back. He watched her blink water out of green eyes (when had she gotten rid of the dark contacts?) Her eyes focused on his for a second then closed as she burst into tears and clung to him sobbing almost uncontrollably.

"Carry her to the shower area, we need to do some serious conditioning on that hair, stripping out the color job she had done was pretty brutal," Nyx ordered the puzzled blond.

"But she's crying…" apparently even Zorpox had a strong dislike for young ladies sobbing when he didn't intend for them to cry.

"Much of a woman's self-image, a large part of her soul, is tied to her hair. She has just ripped away a large part of who she is. That can be very emotional even when it is what she wants. Now pick her up and follow us."

Carrying her out of the pool, he heard a soft, "Thanks, Ronnie, I'm me again. Well, not exactly me, I can't undo that day by doing something as easy as washing my hair."

Looking at his partner, he saw green eyes turn electric blue as she surrendered to the MMP.

Off in the shadows, red eyes scowled at the infantile display of the Great Blue's battle mate.

'I will be a proper Empress,' she thought. Looking carefully at the Great Blue, she decided, 'Better keep Warhok as a concubine, the Great Blue's human body isn't going to be much use for my physical pleasure.'

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Shady tree by baths)**

Ron was sitting in the shade of an old oak, waiting for Raven to appear from the baths. After leaving her in the hands of their dorm mates, he had soaked in the baths (on the men's side!) for about half an hour, rinsed off, and dressed. Now he was sitting in a cool breeze trying to meditate. It was hard because being charged with the blue made his mind race like he was juiced up on caffeine. In the past few days of training, he would dissipate the blue before meditation. Now, he knew that Raven was right, they would have to stay charged up all the time. At the very least, he was now able to suppress the occasional outbursts of maniacal laughter.

"Beep, Beep, Be-Beep"

Even in deep meditation, with every cell in his body charged with the power of the MMP, that was the one sound guaranteed to get his attention. Looking up, he saw a familiar redhead wearing cargo pants walking out of the baths holding up a Kimmunicator.

"Hi Wade, what's the sitch?"

How many times had he heard her say that? Wade would have a lead on a bad guy with some evil plot, then say something like 'Your ride will be out front in fifteen.'

He was broken out of his reverie by her telling their tech genius,

"You take care Wade, I don't know when or even if we'll be able to contact you. You've always rocked Wade, we didn't tell you that enough. Oh, and one last thing, watch out for that Katsumi girl, she seems way too eager to hop into young gentleman's showers…"

Ron took the Kimmunicator she held out to him,

"Hey Wade, we're not taking Rufus with us on this mission, I kinda think that he's really become attached to Hana. Can you help watch out for the both of them please? … Great, say, we gotta run. Love you man."

Ron hit the off button and handed the device back.

"Didn't want to get all weepy and maudlin there, Raven."

"My name is Kim Possible, but one person is allowed to call me KP."

"OK, KP. We've got about an hour till sundown, let's swing by the dorm and pick up a change of clothes, some of your girl stuff and see if we can go to the kitchens and get some snackage before takeoff."

"Not going to tell anyone goodbye, Ron?"

"Nope. Either we come back and then we would have been all emotional for nothing, or we don't come back and nobody can complain to us. Anyone you want to talk to?"

The green-eyed girl thought for a few seconds.

"No, you're right. There's only one person I want to talk to and he's coming with me. This time there shouldn't be any snakes to interrupt our conversation…"

The Kimmunicator buzzed. Kim pulled it out of a pocket and looked at the screen. Frowning, she read something twice before handing it to Ron.

Ron read the message on the screen. The Kimmunicator's transmissions were quadruply encrypted but for really secret information, Wade could send a prepared text message to them that was hidden using spare bits in the protocol layer of the voice transmission data. It took extra time to reassemble, authenticate and decrypt the hidden message, but Wade apparently had information for their eyes only. Ron read,

 _Middleton Space Center was raided by aliens that emptied out Dr. Possible's lab including his FTL prototype and his computer workstations with all his designs and computer files. Dr. Possible was unable to explain to the Air Force how his prototype worked. The Air Force brought in another engineer to take over his project. We believe that didn't work because they are frantically looking for Dr. Possible. We are working with Ninja Teams and some Special Forces types in case the alien raiding parties return. Current Rules of Engagement from politicians forbid meeting future raiding parties with deadly force. We are preparing quietly anyway._

 _Please plan to survive. We will do our best to make sure your home will be here when you get back. I love you both and it has been my greatest joy to work with you._

 _Wade_

Ron thought for a moment, "We need to stop by the kitchen for supplies, maybe we can convince them that we can show them greater riches than they can dream of getting by looting military bases and science labs."

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Middleton)**

"Wade-san, since the conversation is over, so is your break." Katsumi was running on the treadmill next to him, her machine was set at a faster speed and higher incline.

Wade groaned but resumed huffing and puffing on his treadmill. He wasn't sure how it happened, but Katsumi had convinced him to put a pair of treadmills in his ops/bedroom. Granted, there were two keyboards, a mouse pad and three screens mounted on the front of the treadmills, but his typing while walking was crap and typing while jogging wasn't going to happen for a long time.

His parents practically gave 'Kat' a standing ovation when she set up the treadmills as part of the Ninja training program she created for him that she called the "Newt Course". His body felt like he had been beaten, but his holo-room was now permanently a hot springs bath house. They started shifts so that Team Orange could monitor the net while the Team Possible tech genius and his new partner ate dinner and had a soak together. Wade was honest enough to admit that he liked Katsumi a lot. The holo-baths weren't exactly private as they were popular with his parents and off-duty Team Orange and Team Cobra members. Once an Admiral named de Mellivora and some leadership types from U.S Special forces had dropped by for a coordination meeting held in steaming hot water with cold beverages. That time, the virtual view of the porch with mountains projected on the back wall was changed to a map of Middleton.

On the one hand, Wade was having the time of his life. Katsumi had only appeared a week ago and his life was totally changing. The creation of Team Indigo along with working with the other Teams was keeping them busy. Mostly for the better, although he privately mourned for the apparent loss of Team Possible; he expected that Ron and Kim would never return.

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Small inn near Yamanouchi)**

Anne looked up from her soak in the steaming mineral bath to watch the tiny craft rise in the sky and vanish.

"Do you think Ronald and Kimmie-cub are on that rocket?" James put his arms around her and pulled her onto his lap.

"Yes, I do."

"Will they be back?"

"I don't know, honey."

James held his crying wife. His first reaction to Anne's mentioning that Kimmie-cub and Ronald expected to go on a "mission" to see these aliens at their fleet at the edge of the solar system was to rush back to the Middleton Space Center and install his wormhole/FTL prototype into the current version of the Kepler to prepare to back them up. A call to Wade told him that the Space Center was pretty much shut down due to the reaction to the alien raid. In addition, U.S Customs agents had a 'Take into Custody' order on James. Thinking to work with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, he had talked with Erica, who had his files, but the bottom line was that he did not have access to a PDVI. Their equivalent of the Kepler wouldn't be ready to fly for another seven months. Once again, the couple was forced to just wait while their daughter and her friend were off on a mission.

Even with the concern over the youngsters, the last few days had been a repeat of their honeymoon. Heck, it was better than their honeymoon. Instead of forging new connections that would bond them into a couple, they renewed the connections that were already there, making them a stronger couple than ever. They had romantic meals in the inn, a romantic private hot spring connected to their room, they took romantic walks in the countryside by the inn. Such delight in each other's company was too good to last. The day after their daughter set off into space, Anne got a request from Tokyo General for a consultation on a medical case that was over the heads of their neurosurgeons and Jim and Tim called James for help with a power storage problem they were having with their morphing synthodrone 'elderly assistants'. The Yakuza assigned two young soldiers to each for protection and in Anne's case, to make sure they were treated with the proper respect.

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Tokyo, Okonomiyaki shop)**

"Welcome, Gekai-sama! Come this way, please, the room in the back is ready for you, your husband and those fine sons of yours," the older woman smiled as she welcomed the Possible clan and their bodyguards into her okonomiyaki shop.

Anne was meeting up with James and her sons after a full day at Tokyo General's Surgery Center. Her two young toughs turned out to be nearly impossible to shake since one was a woman, not even the bathroom was a hiding place. They were most polite (to her) and did a good job of staying out of her way, but between their scowls at anyone who even looked like they were thinking disrespectful thoughts and the quality of her work on Dia Bosu's nephew, her meetings and consultations went very smoothly. She had been pulled into an emergency trauma surgery for a young girl who had been in an accident and was scheduled to assist in a tricky tumor removal tomorrow morning. Tim and Jim were nearly as famous for their work with the syntho-maids and their on-going work on syntho-companions. James had spent the day with them working out a new power storage system.

Anne was not conceited, but she knew her own worth and the worth of the rest of her family. That they were becoming well known to at least the people of this part of Tokyo suggested that the Yakuza were doing public relations on their behalf. She was wondering why when a stray comment from one of her sons brought her mental wandering to a screeching halt.

 **"You did what to your sister?!"**

Jim and Tim were like deer frozen in headlights...if the headlights were the landing lights on an incoming 747 jumbo jet. Even James was nearly frozen, his mental gears jammed.

"P-p-pregnant? Kimmie-cub is pregnant?" the rocket scientist stuttered.

"No Dad!" started Tim.  
Eww! We didn't do anything like that!" finished Jim.

"Boys, start at the beginning and explain to me what happened," Anne stared coolly at her son, then narrowed her eyes, "Feel free to use technical terms, I'm a doctor."

"OK, there was some kind of prophecy dream thing, you were there, right Mom?" Tim started.

"Yes, I was there on at least two occasions, go on…"

"Well, Kim said that in one she was a little girl and told to go play with dolls instead of fighting bullies with Ron," Jim added.  
"But the doll she was playing with had tentacles like an octopus,"  
"in her dream, she called it 'Shiva, Destroyer of Worlds'. But that"  
"sounded, to us, a little more like Cthulhu, 'cause Shiva"  
"is usually represented as humanoid with extra arms…"

"Boys, stay on track…" Anne growled.

"So, then she said that the MMP's Avatar told her that her the Destroyer baby was not a symbol,"  
"Yeah, it said something about how Westerners couldn't be expected to understand anything symbolic, that we had a hard enough time with literal stuff."  
"The octopus in the dream reminded her of the demo toy we made to show off our morphing syntho-goop technology."

"She said that as soon as that thought occurred to her, the avatar patted her on the head and told her she was a good girl."  
"After it dodged a punch, she started to ask it about how to do the destroyer"  
"part, but then she thought, 'Doy! It's Jim and Tim making it!"

The twins fist-bumped, proud to be the go-to supplier for tools of mass destruction for their older sister.

"Boys, how did you turn Kimmie-cub's doll into the Destroyer of Worlds?" James was back into territory that he felt comfortable enough to join the conversation.

"Not so fast James," Anne interrupted, "the boys haven't told me how Kimmy is smuggling it into the Lowardian fleet."

The twins couldn't meet her eyes,

"It was Kim's idea, Mom, honest!"  
"Kamiko was there… and Rufus!"

"Just spit it out boys, where is your syntho-baby?" Anne was guessing some sort of false stomach made from syntho-skin or something, but her boys would think that was funny. Needing the help of the physician's assistant was troubling, but Rufus?

"It's, uh, where babies normally go, you know…" Tim was trying to live to see tomorrow.  
"It's in her uterus." Jim decided to lay the cards on the table. Surely his parents wouldn't actually kill them. Maybe their Yakuza bodyguards would prevent that?

"How?" Anne's voice held traces of doom. Normally she knew better to ask a question when she didn't want to hear the answer, but she was hoping against hope that their answer didn't involve surgery, either conventional or mystical.

"The baby is in octopus form. An octopus can squeeze through any opening that its beak will fit through." Tim was trying to calm down as he reminded himself that his parents were not violent people.  
"Ours has no beak, but there are some memory circuits, it can squeeze through a one-inch opening."  
"The one we made for her was about the size of a grapefruit when in a sphere shape."

Anne winced, remembering how much having an IUD put in hurt and that her IUD wasn't anywhere close to an inch in diameter.

"Kamiko gave Sis painkillers and some stuff to help her muscles stretch,"  
"Rufus used his MMP to help her body adjust. Tim and I sat by her head holding her hand,"  
"and gave her someone to yell at. Kamiko helped the syntho-octopus slide in and watched for,"  
"signs of muscle tearing or bleeding. She didn't see any real damage."

"Did you see any blood?"

"Mom! She's our sister!"  
"We didn't look down there!"

The topic was changed when the Yakuza guard, who was demonstrating her mother's style of making okonomiyaki nearly caught it on fire while listening to their conversation instead of paying attention to her griddle.

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Somewhere in the general vicinity of Saturn)**

Kim reclined on their acceleration couch and looked at Saturn using an external camera view on the display projected on the ceiling. The Lowardian lander had no windows to avoid weak spots in the structure. Structural strength was critical in a craft designed to accelerate at rates exceeding 125 Earth gravities. Should the acceleration compensation systems fail, the inhabitants of the lander would be turned to paste, but the craft itself would survive.

The interior was cramped, with two couches in the control area, a tiny galley, and a large couch that she and Ron shared. There was an enclosed toilet, the seat was higher off the floor than she was used to, but thankfully, fairly Earth normal otherwise. Ron was taking up most of the floor space simply by cooking at the tiny two burner stove.

For the last 36 hours, he had spent most of his waking moments taking the Lowardians on a culinary tour of the world. Well, not all the world, he seemed to focus on the Southern half of North America. He had convinced them that allowing him to pack about a hundred pounds of groceries, mostly dry goods and spices, would let him show them sources of profits that they had never dreamed of. Right now, he was fixing pupusas, a street food from El Salvador that was basically a thick corn tortilla that was filled with something. Being they were in extremely close quarters, He skipped the spicy bean filling and prepared meat and cheese plus non-standard fruit filled ones. His initial offering of fresh tortilla chips and various dips had been well received, it appeared that if Warhok and Warmonga were typical, Diablo sauce would be a valuable commodity.

"Here ya go, KP," a glowing blue Ron handed her a bowl with small golden-brown pillow shapes wrapped loosely in a towel.

"Thanks," she replied, "How's the sales pitch going?" She looked over at the two aliens talking and laughing as they munched on their little corn pillows.

"Better than I hoped," he said, slipping into a quiet maniacal laugh, "He who controls the Spice controls the universe! Wait until I can show them a Naco!"

She finished her snacks while watching her partner standing by the aliens' couches talking. She couldn't hear what was being said over the general rumble and noise from the lander's drive and acceleration compensation systems.

Later, dressed only in Ron's old football jersey, she slept draped over the warm body of her partner as the lander raced toward the Fleet. The blue glow from their bodies danced and intertwined as its power was strengthened by feedback provided by dreams of earlier, happier days of a young girl and her best friend forever as they played together.

As they slept, a swarm of solid metal bars roughly the size and shape of Greyhound busses coasted past them on a trajectory towards earth.

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

If it's a Ninja then it's a safe bet that it was directly copied from or inspired by Sentinel103 and his "Once Again" stories.

 **Mea Culpa:** There is roughly a 12-hour difference between Japan and the United States. That means that early morning in one spot is early evening in the other. So, don't pay too much attention to the concept of simultaneity in this story.

 **Authors Note:** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and plot bunny wranglers.

 **Author's note on space travel at the "speed of plot".** Unless you have an FTL system like Dr. Possible wormhole, the solar system is a really big place. Using basic Newtonian physics, consider traveling to the edge of the solar system (14.9e+12 meters or 9,258,000,000 miles) assuming constant acceleration for half the trip, turning around and decelerating the rest of the way:

Acceleration = 1G, time = 28.5 days, max speed is 4% speed of light.

Acceleration = 5G, time = 12.8 days, max speed is 9% speed of light.

Acceleration = 10G, time = 9.0 days, max speed is 12.8% speed of light.

Acceleration = 100G, time = 2.9 days, max speed is 40.3% speed of light.

In this story, the Lowardian's landing craft must be pushing 100Gs of acceleration to meet the times that are happening in the story. Note that a speed of 40% of the speed of light only slows time as observed on the lander by about 9%, so while it would be easy to test, for the purposes of this story, it's down in the noise.

Published Dec 22, 2018


	21. Finale One of Three

**This is part one of the three-part ending.**

 **updated 8 Jan 2019 - added the "put a ring on it" comment from Ron**

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Yamanouchi - Crack of Dawn)**

The GJ hoverjet landed on the far side of the chasm and the rope bridge leading to the main gates of the Ninja school. The back clamshell door open and the ramp extended. Master Sensei followed four Ninja carrying a stretcher.

Will Du met the old headmaster, looking at the young unconscious woman in the stretcher. Dr. Director had rerouted his trip back from Japan for this stop and told him to 'extend all courtesies, even if he needs a body buried somewhere.' Will had, of course, thought she was jesting, but now, he wasn't sure.

"Greetings, Master Sensei, How may Global Justice be of service?"

"Top Agent Du," the old man replied, "I need this woman in Middleton as soon as possible. Take the utmost care of her, she is one of my best Ninja."

"Does she require medical care?"

"No, she will awaken in about four to five hours. May I recommend restraints?"

"Is she dangerous?" Courtesy was one thing, but this was looking bad.

"Of course, Top Agent. She is a Ninja. Let us say that I have need of her in Middleton, but her loyalty tells her to remain here instead."

"Why don't you just order her to go to Middleton?"

"She's disobeyed that order once, only a fool gives a command that he knows will be ignored."

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Somewhere at the far edge of the Kuiper Belt)**

Dumb with astonishment and amazement which bordered on stupefaction [1], the young Earthers stood staring at the dead ringer for a TSA security screening area. The area was empty when full at least a couple hundred humans could have waited in line. The two Lowardians grabbed their bags, stepped off the lander, and started walking back and forth through the roped lanes. Looking closely at the scanning area, Kim noticed a set of large full-body scanners.

"Ronnie, they are going to scan us!" Kim whispered frantically, "What do I say when they ask me about the bump?"

"Tell them it's a baby, these people haven't seen a pregnant human, just bullshit them." Ron carefully placed the equivalent of two Grande Deluxe Tour of Mexico Platters wrapped 'To Go' on the wheeled cart with his groceries.

"I can't do that, I'm no good at lying! Remember _Halloween?_ "

"Then just tell them the truth!" Ron chortled, "They won't believe you and best of all, you don't have to remember your lies." Getting control of his mirth, he shouldered his backpack and grabbed the handle of the wheeled cart loaded with his foodstuffs. Starting to wind his way down the serpentine lanes, he said,

"No worries, just remember that you are KFP, that is, Kim Freakin' Possible! Mother of the baby that will make Armageddon seem like hot dogs at the Fair!"

Shouldering her mission pack, she grabbed her overnight bag and followed, chanting in her mind, 'I am Kim Freaking Possible. I can do anything.'

"Any weapons?" a bored security tech asked Ron looking at the packages and their strange contents.

"Hmm," The blond looked thoughtful before declaring, "I suppose anything can be a weapon if you know how to use it. Hold this please," he handed the takeout containers to Warhok to hold. "For example," he reached into a bag, pulling out a small handful of corn flour and letting the fine powder fall back into the bag, "this is food, but given the correct conditions, its dust can explode."

Ignoring the crunching sound of Warhok eating crispy tortillas dipped in queso, he continued. Reaching into another bag, he displayed an oblong object that was red at one end transitioning to green along its length.

"This is also food, but under intense heat, it produces a gas that irritates the lungs."

Warmonga plucked the pepper from his fingers, dipped it in Warhok's queso, and happily ate it in three bites.

Another Security Tech was trying to focus on scanning the redhead, but the smell coming from the open takeout container was heavenly for someone who had been on ship's rations for weeks.

"Are you a cyborg or are you carrying a parasite?" he asked her.

Walking around so she could see his screen, she pointed to the white line in the picture of her mouth, "That is a retaining wire. It keeps my teeth in alignment."

"No, I was asking about this mass down…"

"Hey KP," Ron interrupted, "Corporal Worrywart over here is afraid that we are smuggling in Toxic Tiny Tacos. Eat a couple to help prove that they are **NOT** instant death in a delicious, crispy corn shell."

Blinking in surprise, she turned away from the security tech and took a perfectly formed bite-sized taco off of the plate he held out. Well, for her, it was two neat bites of spicy, cheesy, Tex-Mex goodness. Ron or Rufus would have eaten it in one easy bite.

"Wow Ronnie, all the taste of the Naco, but without dripping melted cheese all over the place. You get a royalty on these?" she noticed out of the corner of her eye that her security tech wiped his mouth, the Lowardian was literally drooling.

Ron held up his hand, fingers spread, "Gonna have to put a ring on it if you want to see the financial stuff, babe."

"You have a ring of truth?" asked the confused security tech.

"No, he means a marriage ring," replied Kim, "It's like a public declaration of battlemates, maybe. He gets recurring payments for the foods he invented. He's saying that he won't tell me how much he gets paid for his recipes until I ask him to be my forever battlemate."

"Food recipes are worth money?" This was obviously an alien concept to the security tech.

"Oh, yeah. Some are kept secret in secure vaults. On my world, information can be worth a lot of money."

Warmonga walked over, taking the plate from the blond. Popping two into her mouth, she held it out to the Tech, "Try one, they're good. Really, would a new mother risk eating anything poisonous?"

"New Mother?" The scanner tech turned back to his display. "This is a baby human?" He fiddled with the controls.

Ron walked around so he could see the screen, "Yeah, they all look like blobs at this stage of development." He put his arm around the redhead and moved her around the scanner to the exit of the scanner. She felt him slide something into the back of her cargo pants and felt him put something in one of her pockets.

"Wait right there, human!" The scanner tech ordered, grabbing Ron by a shoulder. "We still have to search you."

Kim tried not to touch the Walther PPK that Ron had slipped into her pants or the magazines he had placed in one of her pockets while Ron was poked and prodded. Not gently, but the Tex-Mex samples seemed to have helped sooth the security techs.

[1] Rick Wakeman, "Journey to the Centre of the Earth". Best Lyric Ever

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Middleton, approximately 2 pm)**

Derrick was undecided whether to throw up and collapse, or just collapse. After a briefing of the alien threat as understood by the Yamanouchi Ninja Teams, they had quickly evaluated him for combat and stealth skills. Finding that he had none, at least according to a young woman named Wanda, they had all gone out on a "short run before lunch". That was two hours ago and right now, they were crossing a park with the Possible house in sight. His initial goal of not embarrassing himself in front of these high-school-aged(?) students was abandoned long ago and now he just wanted to make it back to the Possible house without being carried.

Jogging up the driveway, he would have faceplanted on the pavement had Hirotaka and Suzie not grabbed his arms and supported him. A quart of electrolyte enhanced drink, a hot shower, and change of fresh clothes later and he was almost human, although perhaps a little wobbly. On his way down to find Team Cobra for lunch, he tried to think of how he could actually help and decided that the best he could do was try to stay out of the way with a radio and coordinate actions with the other groups.

"Duhei-san," Suzie met him as he stepped out onto the back porch, "we want you to try this." She handed him a strange looking long gun with a fat barrel, "This is an experimental grenade launcher that was eventually rejected by the United States Military. It works fine, they thought it was a waste of firepower to replace a 'real' rifle with it."

"I don't know, Suzie," he gingerly took the weapon, "I'm not a good shot."

"Not a problem," the Ninja grinned, "the grenades will not explode near one of us with an IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) token, so while you might hit us by mistake, you can't seriously injure one of us. Come, let me introduce you to Inshuru-san, he can show you how it works and has a computer software training program for you to use." The pair walked past the grill where people were working on burgers and kabobs to a picnic table where she introduced him to the Ninja sitting there.

Wanda watched as the Team Orange Ninja started demonstrating the computer-based sighting system to their liaison to the other special operations elements.

"I don't know about this, Hiro," she said accepting an American-style ham and pineapple kabob from him.

"It will give him something to worry about, keep him back from the battle and maybe we will be lucky and he might hit something useful."

* * *

 **STD 2018- (GJ Middleton Branch, approximately 4 pm)**

Yori had quickly bounced back from her surprise at waking up in a supersonic GJ hoverjet. Actually, her surprise was on a couple of levels. First, her last memory was sneezing on a cloud of sweet-smelling dust and hearing Master Sensei say, "Forgive me, Yori-san, but I have need of you in Middleton" as the room where she had gone to report her efforts in getting the caves ready for refugees grew dark and she collapsed.

The second level of surprise was looking up at giant insect eyes. Well, large insect eyes, she had seen bigger ones. Recently.

"Ohayou gozaimasu, Roachie-chan," she said, "I'm thirsty, should I get us something to drink?"

Antennae waved happily.

After slipping out of her restraints, (she **was** a Ninja), she went forward to greet Top Agent Du and ensure that no violence would be required or offered. Soon she had made tea and a quart of the fruit flavored non-dairy creamer infused drink for Roachie and sat in the back having a pleasant discussion with Du exchanging all the information they knew about the Lowardians. In rendering her unconscious and shipping her off with GJ, Master Sensei had effectively made her an independent agent, there could be no shame in her leaving Japan for the supposedly safer America and she had Carte Blanche to exchange information with anyone where that exchange would be useful to Yamanouchi.

After landing and a ride through the transport tubes that many roller coaster fans would pay good money for, she found herself in a transfer station standing in front of Dr. Director.

"Welcome to GJ Middleton, Yori. I would like to have you talk to our analysts about how we can help defend Japan or how Yamanouchi can help us defend other places. Since we don't have a clear picture of the threat, we must be able to respond quickly."

"Your request honors me greatly, Dr. Director-sama. However, for me to be effective, I need to first check in with my team and rest for a few hours."

"I believe your team can be found at the Possible's house. Tube 7 will take you to within one block," handing her a wallet-sized card embossed with the letters PV, she continued, "To return, walk over the tube opening and press the center of this card. Show the card to anyone and tell them that you wish to speak to me and they will take you to me."

"Thank you very much. I will return in the morning at the latest."

"Anytime you are ready, I expect to be here 24/7 for the foreseeable future."

As she stepped into the tube and disappeared, Will asked his boss,

"A Privileged Visitor badge? The 'no escort required for anywhere in the base, but expected as a show of respect'?"

"Will, I believe she is expected to be a senior Sensei at Yamanouchi in the years to come. I really want closer ties to the Mountain."

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Somewhere at the far edge of the Kuiper Belt)**

"Well, as far as lockups go, this one is pretty nice, don't ya think KP?"

The room had a table with four chairs, a bed, and a door that locked from the outside. Ron lay on the bed while Kim paced back and forth. On her hands. The gravity on the ship seemed to be about three-quarters of Earth normal and Ron had suggested that if she needed to pace, do it in a way that would make any observers wonder about her. The room wasn't big enough for cartwheels, but a handstand was easy and with the lighter gravity, walking on hands wasn't too hard.

"It beats being chained to the wall, but it's pretty boring."

"Let's go take a walk. I'm got the munchies. Got your Club Banana discount card on you?"

"Never leave home without it," Kim rolled to her feet, pulled out her wallet and extracted a thin, gold-colored plastic card.

Standing next to the door, she slid the card in the crack of the doorjamb as Ron selected foodstuffs and transferred them to a mission pack. Ron looked up to see the redhead, eyes closed, her tongue sticking out a teeny bit as she concentrated in probing for the doorlatch. There was a click, and eyes shining in triumph, she held the door open, saying, "Age before beauty…"

Ron stepped out the door and let his inner sense of direction point him to his favorite destination: The kitchen. Walking down the wide corridor (the Lowardians were, after all, wide people) he felt a warm hand grasp his. He found the situation and his feelings unsettling. If he concentrated, he could still see the slight blue haze in his field of vision. Searching his feelings like some Mystical Knight from 'a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away', he could still feel the arrogance and aggressiveness that came with pulling the blue, but it was being tempered with something… softer? He recalled thinking how adorable she had looked in opening the door. That was a bad sign. He needed to remain ice cold, focused, alert. He had to steer the aliens away from looting the planet and for that, he and Kim had to appear to be valuable enough to convince these aliens not to mess with their home. 'Or,' he thought, 'we could just kill them all, but we should make sure they don't have friends that will come seeking vengeance before we go that route.'

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Middleton, approximately midnight)**

Wade load was sleeping the sleep of the truly blessed. Earlier that day, Wanda and Suzie had come over and insisted the pair take the evening off and get away from computer screens and keyboards. Having six glorious hours to themselves, Wade had taken Katsumi to Bueno Nacho for dinner where he introduced her to the Chain's _very_ questionable Tex-Mex. They had sat in Ron and Kim's favorite booth talking about little things, anime that they liked, movies they had seen and even chatted about the future.

Wade, having seen Team Possible save the world on several occasions in time to finish homework, and Katsumi, who had personally witnessed the great skills and great hearts of her fellow Ninja, were both optimistic that they would have a future. Wade figured that Ron and Kim were well on their way to the stars and planned on following them there someday. Sure, the current sitch looked grim, but, as he told Katsumi, 'Anything is possible for a Possible when her BFF is right at her side'. His heart swelled with happiness when Katsumi declared that she would like to accompany him wherever he went, even if he never left Middleton.

It was getting late when they left to go home. Walking under the stars and the Moon, Wade held her hand. Distracted, he could be forgiven for not noticing that one of the twinkling stars overhead disappeared for nearly a minute as if something had moved in front of it. After all, no one else on the planet noticed, either.

He wasn't sure who started the physical contact, but her warm, slender hand in his larger mitt sent shivers of excited happiness coursing through his veins. Then it happened again in the baths. She had offered to scrub his back, and he, ignoring Kim's warning, timidly accepted. To his surprise, he didn't burst into flames at her firm, gentle touch. Once she had finished, she had shyly offered him the scrubby and asked him to do hers. After they were clean, their time soaking in the baths together was a blur to him; he was pretty sure more hand holding and a splash or two was involved. He remembered giggling and the smile of an Angel from Heaven as if it were a dream.

He had fallen asleep listening to the hypnotic tapping of her nimble fingers on a keyboard as she took the first shift and was soon dreaming of her soft, smooth skin gliding under his fingers. In his dream, he was uncharacteristically bold and planted a tender kiss on her shoulder and heard her soft, delighted giggle in response.

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Late afternoon, Japanese Inn)**

"Honey, what time do we need to be at the airport, tomorrow?" the surgeon asked, looking out over the little hot spring and garden next to their room at the Inn. Truth be told, she did not want to leave.

"Dia Bosu said two of his people would be here at 10 AM to make sure we get to our plane without incident," James replied coming up behind her, rubbing her shoulders and nuzzling her hair.

"Are you sure you want to go back? Wade says that government types are waiting to pick you up at the airport."

The engineer sighed, "Well, I figure Mama can spring me if the Feds get too carried away. You need to be there with your surgery team for Kimmie-cub and Ronald. We have to assume that they will be back." Holding her tightly, he continued, "They have always made it home in the past… I can't help them here, when I get back to the Space Center, I can work on making another power source for the FTL drive."

"This might be our last time sleeping together for a while…" she murmured.

"Then let's make it one to remember…" As hands capable of calibrating the most delicate guidance machinery started undoing the buttons on her blouse.

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Sundown, Tokyo)**

"Konbanwa, Jim-san, are you working alone tonight?" Kiri had heard that the Bouyatachi were back at the factory working on their new designs and decided to drop by. She had found the boys funny, caring and cute. She actually missed them. When she got to the factory, she found it empty, just the night watchman watching TV, with Jim hunched over a workbench doing some kind of soldering on tiny circuit boards.

"Hey, Kiri," replied Jim sitting up and stretching the kinks out of his back, "Yeah, just me right now, Tim's off with some Ninja who dropped by, batted her eyelashes at him and dragged him off to dinner." He checked his watch, "That was about three hours ago. I guess they got distracted. Everyone else is off doing the team-building bar hopping thing."

The former maid-cafe server gripped his shoulders and massaged the stiff muscles of the young genius, giggling as he nearly slid out of the chair sighing with pleasure.

"Jim-san, turn off your equipment, let's go eat. I know a nice European Jazz Cafe. Good food, nice music, they even do ballroom dance music later in the evening."

She felt him immediately stiffen under her hands.

"Jim-san!" she said, "This is not a date! This is just two friends enjoying each other's company."

"No kissing?"

Looking at the young genius's grin she decided that she would have to watch her heart with this one.

"No _guarantee_ of kissing! But, how much the two friends enjoy each other's company will be determined in real time."

Jim quickly turned his soldering equipment off and grabbed a light jacket to cover his ink.

"I'm ready!"

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Nearly Midnight in Japan; Nearly Noon in Middleton)**

'My turn to fix lunch," Wade turned to his partner who was seated behind him in the center of the ring of computer monitors where the pair watched over the world. The part of the world that was wired, that is. Given Wade's skill and the rapidly increasing skills of Katsumi, that was _most_ of the world.

"What are you in the mood for?" he politely asked.

"Fish tacos with fresh corn tortillas, please."

"Really?" Wade's mom had taught him how to make fresh corn tortillas, it was really easy and was pretty quick. But of all the possible fillings, Katsumi was fond of wrapping a couple of fish sticks in the grilled corn goodness along with cheese, tomato chunks, and Diablo sauce.

"Please?" She pleaded with impossibly huge, almost anime eyes.

"Ack! OK! Not the eyes! Fish tacos it is," the tech genius theatrically threw his arms up to shield his eyes.

"Arigato gozaimasu!" her grin at his antics was nearly blinding.

Wade fled to the kitchen where he measured a cup of masa harina into a bowl with a pinch of salt, a small splash of oil and enough water to make a dough that was soft but not sticky. Letting that sit for a bit, he pulled some fish sticks out of the freezer and put them in the toaster oven. Feeling bold, he decided that he had enough time to try to make a batch of Ron's Diablo Queso…

Katsumi, pleased that she had gotten Wade to make her a tasty lunch and gotten him out of the room for at least twenty minutes, went to her comms window to wait for a call from Luki, a friend in the same Ninja class. Time to dish up some gossip for an appetizer…

Right on time, the window flashed, and after a pause where the privacy and encryption settings were verified, Luki appeared on the screen.

"Luki-chan! How was your date?

"Katsumi-chan! It wasn't a date, I went and got Tim-san and we just went to dinner!"

"Dinner and _then_ …?" Katsumi laughed at her friend.

"Dinner and then we went for ice cream and then a long walk in the moonlight."

Katsumi squealed a little, "How romantic!"

Luki grinned, "During the walk, he defended me against a giant snake by throwing his body in front of me!"

"Snake-san?"

"Hai!" Luki giggled as Katsumi struggled not to fall out of her chair laughing, "I think that stupid snake just wanted a warm human to carry her. To be fair, Tim-san had never met Snake-san before and a seven-foot-long snake, shining purple in the moonlight, is very scary when it slips out of the trees and surprises you. But," Luki continued, still looking very impressed, "Tim-san is very smart-brave, not stupid-brave like most boys. Both brothers carry lightning batons they created. He had his baton out, but instead of shocking poor Snake-san, he held it in a defensive position to parry any strike by the snake."

"Did you properly introduce him to Snake-san?"

"Hai! And while he was a little embarrassed, he mostly thought it was funny. He carried it to Nakano-Sensei's cave and then he walked me to the dorm. He is so handsome and brave! It was the perfect night!"

"Did he kiss you, goodnight?" Katsumi slyly asked just as the comms connection disconnected.

* * *

 **This is part one of the three-part ending.**

 **Part two will be posted tomorrow.**


	22. Finale Two of Three

**This is part two of the three-part ending.**

 **Part three will be posted tomorrow.**

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Midnight, in the skies over Japan)**

The kinetic weapons weren't traveling at a significant fraction of the speed of light because the Captain of captains didn't want to destroy the planet, he wanted to make a statement. He didn't know that this statement was about to kill millions of people, but that wouldn't really have bothered him or any of the other captains. Still, they were traveling at incredible speeds.

The kinetic projectiles flashed through the last 26 miles of atmosphere in a fraction of a second. ( **A/N** 99.9% of the earth's atmosphere by weight is here.) Heat from the falling slugs the size of Greyhound buses was felt in South Korea more than one hundred miles away. Trees under the incoming slugs burst into flames just before the first impacted the ground. The concussion wave from the first few shattered trees into splinters which immediately exploded into a firestorm. Buildings shattered into instant rubble. Following slugs shattered bedrock into gravel and the force of the impact sprayed the gravel out into the sea.

The combination of heat and concussion waves turned Tokyo into an instant crematorium. The updraft from the firestorm pulled burning debris, ash, and dust thousands of feet in the air. Vaporized metal condensed and added a sparkle to the cloud.

The mountain called Yamanouchi was no sturdier than Lowardian physics predicted. A blue globe snapped into existence around Rufus who was in the cave snoozing on top of Lenard. The blue globe was extinguished by a spray of vaporized iridium, which burned away the flesh of all the humans in the room. Following slugs crushed the mountain into gravel, the gravel to sand, and finally blew the material out to sea.

In approximately forty-five seconds, Japan, an archipelago with 420 inhabited islands, was erased from the planet along with the 125 million people who lived there. The glowing cloud of burning debris and steam from the sea boiling as it rushed onto the superheated impact area turned North and South Korea's midnight into twilight. The next morning, the sun didn't rise over Beijing and wouldn't be seen for four days. The Lowardian kinetic weapons officers knew their job, staggering the impacts over the period of nearly a minute reduced the tsunami generated by the destruction of Japan to the point where only North and South Korea's eastern coastline received catastrophic damage. The shock waves from the impact triggered dozens of small to medium sympathetic earthquakes all along the western side of the Pacific Ring of Fire.

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Noon, Middleton)**

Wade was plating fish tacos with a side of chips and queso dip to take down to have lunch with Katsumi when he heard her cry out in terror. Racing down the stairs, he flew through the door to find her frantically bringing up pictures from high-resolution weather satellites, spy satellites, even the test cameras from the International Space Station, anything she could use to get eyes on the West Pacific Ocean. Wade's mind struggled to accept the magnitude of the firestorm over Japan as he thought, 'Where are Kim and Ron?'

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Somewhere at the far edge of the Kuiper Belt)**

Kim sat unnoticed in a cafeteria area. She idly wondered if this was how Ron felt back in the recent past when they were doing regular mission against ordinary supervillains. Perhaps this was a sign that the MMP was finally starting to work for her. During the morning sessions of the Dragon Course, one of the exercises was becoming invisible, or to be more accurate, "How not to be seen". In the courtyard, she felt like she was able to become translucent where other students, even many junior students, could turn invisible. She believed that was due to leftover MMP bleeding out of the Temple that Toshimiru himself had carved out of the mountain. Her theory was he intentionally left behind a pool of MMP for nearby students to access. Certainly, she had no success practicing this kind of stealth anywhere else until now. She wasn't exactly invisible, it was just that when Lowardians would look in her direction, their eyes would look away like she was no more interesting than a chair or table. Occasionally moving with her carafe of iced water, a bowl of chips and Diablo sauce, she sampled the conversations:

" _Don't know about the fighting skills of this Great Blue human, but they are handing out samples of something called a Naco, run up and get one, I've had three already. Tomorrow's breakfast special is going to be something called a bean and cheese combination burrito. If it's half as good as this Naco, I say let the forces of darkness take over everything as long as this Great Blue keeps cooking!_ "

Kim grinned to herself, she had no idea if she could speak Lowardian, but the MMP seemed to let her understand it. Ron had disappeared into the kitchen after fixing her a platter of snacks and telling her to hang out in the eating area and listen. Apparently, Ron had taken over the kitchens.

After watching the Lowardians she had been listening to head back to the serving lines, she moved to sit near three Lowardians talking over some kind of hot drinks and pastries:

 _"I heard that we are pulling out as soon as the Earth government hands over their chief scientist. Rumors are that Imperial Scouts are headed this way."_

 _"Think that they will just hand the human over? I'd expect them to refuse or stall."_

 _"The bombardment ships should be making an example of some islands any time now. That'll put the fear of Lowardia into them!"_

 _"They did check to make sure the human we want isn't on those islands? Those trigger-happy idiots aren't very careful_ _…"_

 _"The islands are on the other side of the planet than the scientist."_

In spite of the arrogance provided by the blue, Kim's blood ran cold. Was the 'Scientist', her Dad? 'Oh my God,' she thought, 'are they going to bomb Hawaii?' Looking around, she spotted Ron talking to Warhok and Warmonga. Hurrying over, she grabbed Ron and pulled him to the side. The moment that she pulled on Ron, both Lowardians seemed startled and stared at her.

'Note to self,' she thought, 'rule #3 for "How not to be seen": Don't grab people.'

"Ron, they are planning on attacking Hawaii or some other islands to get the government to hand over Dad!"

Warhok spoke up, "I talked to the Captain of captains when we arrived and he has agreed to immediately issue an order to stop all actions now and reconsider their plans in a meeting of captains following a demonstration of your Mystical Monkey Power. Right now, you need to go to your quarters and rest," he then spoke more sternly, "For your safety, you need to remain in your quarters until Warmonga and I come to get you. Come, we will escort you to ensure you arrive safely."

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Shortly after noon, Middleton)**

Wade was working as fast as he was able, one-handed. Using a Dvorak-forsaken mouse. The reality of what had happened had not become real to him and he was not going to let it become real until he got a message out to Ron and Kim. Katsumi was a sobbing mess in his lap and he was holding her tightly with one hand while he used his free hand to call up the history of locations of everyone that he had 'chipped'. Joss and Slim were at their ranch all morning. Kim and Ron's chips were 'out of range', of course. Tim and Jim started in Tokyo, then Tim went off by himself eventually making his way back to the Yamanouchi campus. Jim remained at the factory but later went off wandering Tokyo. All three Stoppables spent the evening at their house. Kim's parents were at the small inn they had been staying at while Dr. Possible recovered from having his memories reconnected. Rufus was spotted outside the gates of Yamanouchi then his signal disappeared. Probably went into a cave. Vivian Porter was in China, Wade seemed to recall that she was talking to a chip fabrication company about a new processor for their new service syntho-helper. He thought that Erica was with her.

Wade almost lost it when he saw that only the beacons from Slim, Joss, and Vivian were currently reporting and that the display of an ocean research satellite showed no land above the waves where Japan used to be. Over six thousand islands, of all sizes, erased from the Pacific.

Suzie exploded into the room and barked harsh, fast Japanese at the sobbing girl in his arm. Katsumi jerked to her feet and answered back in Japanese. Turning to Wade and bowing deeply, she said, "Forgive my inexcusable weakness, Wade-sama, what can I do to assist you?"

Glaring at Suzie, he replied, "Break into the command and control systems of the deep space telescopes in Australia, I have a message I want to get to Kim and Ron as soon as possible. We aren't going to take time to ask permission."

"Hai!" replied the young Ninja, sitting down in the computer chair behind him, grabbing a small towel to dry off her face before putting her hands on the keyboard and began furiously typing.

While Wade was putting together a very short message to Team Possible, the "Surrender or Die" demand from the Lowardians came in:

"Surrender James Possible to us by sunset at his lab. Any disobedience or resistance to Lowardian forces will be met with overwhelming destruction as we demonstrated on the other side of this world."

Suzie looked over his shoulder at his message. She reached over and added a line to the end:

"Islands of Japan totally destroyed in kinetic strike as a warning."

"All Possibles/Stoppables were lost."

"Believe that any new kinetic strikes will originate from your location."

"Expect looting by Ls to start at any time."

"Teams Cobra, Orange & Indigo will protect Slim, Joss, and Middleton with their lives."

"Is that still short enough, Wade-san?" Suzie asked.

"Yes." Wade replied, then said, "Katsumi-san, let me know when you have control of the antennas and we'll get this message started."

"The antennas that were Internet-attached are now yours, Wade-sama" she replied with a voice still rough with unshed tears and a command window popped up on one of his screens already logged into the command and control systems of seven antenna farms; ready for him to input commands.

* * *

 **STD 2018- (Somewhere at the far edge of the Kuiper Belt)**

"I'm not having any fun here," Ron thought as Kim dodged another sword strike as she nimbly slipped between the torn pieces of deck-plates he had orbiting himself. The first match had been two on two with paint pistols. Their opponents, not having seen the teens' fighting style, made it an easy win. This match was five on two with primitive weapons and they were being cautious and concentrating on Kim. Two opponents were on the ground bleeding. Kim had a bleeding cut on her face from getting hit when she tried to halt the match so their seconds or trainers could remove the first one injured. The second one on the ground had an arm mangled and ribs broken when Ron had reached out, grabbed a deck-plate, and sailed it like a Frisbee at him after he managed to hit Kim while she called for a timeout.

Ron dropped the orbiting rubble and drew the Lotus Blade. These guys apparently got all their training from bad movies and had no idea of basics, like the goal of a sword is to hit your opponent, not your opponent's sword. And that the heavy sword with grooves, like a comb that Kim selected, wasn't for producing grievous wounds, it was a sword breaker and by the time Ron stepped beside her with a glowing Lotus Blade, his opponents were carrying blunt, short swords. Two of their remaining opponents were quickly bludgeoned to the ground and the third drew a projectile weapon of some sort, but not fast enough and Kim dodged the shot to the side while Ron removed the offending hand.

"Match is awarded to the Great Blue and his Battlemate," the announcer's voice was amplified to be heard over the roar of the crowds. Warhok, the Great Blue's designated second watched as two warriors were carried off the field, plus another three that slowly, painfully hobbled off on their own power. Including one that had a tourniquet tied to his wrist.

Warmonga, the Great Blue's designated Coach/Trainer was giving the pair a careful check for injuries. Well, she at least glued a couple of butterfly bandages to Kim's face before checking Ron. Kim ignored the disparity. As charged up with the blue as she was, her arrogance would not permit jealousy, the idea that her 'Battle _mate'_ would consort with anyone except her was laughable. 'Not that I've ever done any consorting with Blue Boy,' she thought grumpily.

The demonstration matches were being held in a dome on the large troop transport ship. The dome might have been transparent, but this far out in space, the interior lights swamped out the light from any stars that might have been visible. The dome covered an area about one quarter the size of a football stadium. Warmonga told them that she thought that most of the personnel in their fleet that could be spared were here to witness the battle prowess of her Great Blue.

Ron's biggest Lowardian fan girl was highly amused that his new and wildly popular breakfast dish, the **Bean and cheese burrito smothered with a red or green chili sauce** was giving him a combat advantage as most of his opponents were suffering from painful amounts of intestinal gas. Not to mention the air purifiers in the arena were working at maximum capacity.

"Warhok," Ron asked, "Are the captains satisfied now? Are my world and family safe in exchange for our services?"

Warhok looked troubled at seeing the announcer set up for the next match, "I will go ask the captains personally."

Ron watched him walk off then turned to check on Kim. He was amused to see her standing nude with Warmonga painting red tribal designs on her upper body. Once finished, Warmonga held out her hook blade to let Kim slice off a foot of fabric off of a kilt.

'Wait! Where did they get a kilt?' Ron wondered, 'Were both of the warriors carried off the field fully dressed?'

"Hey, KP," he called out as he walked up to the pair as Warmonga wrapped the kilt around his girlfriend after having to slice off another section to prevent her from having to wrap it around an extra time, "Got tired of wearing Club Banana?"

"Your battlemate does her foe a great honor, Great Blue," the Lowardian replied, "She is declaring to all present by wearing his emblem that he and his family are warriors worth fighting along your side!"

As Warmonga wandered off to check the condition of the field, Ron leaned close to his painted battlemate, "Is the emblem the design on your skirt or the paint on your boobs?"

She glared at her Great Blue Idiot, "It's the design on the **kilt** , it's not a skirt. The design all over my **entire upper body** is the Great Blue's tribal design. I'm wearing the kilt because baby Shiva has been telling me for the last hour that it is nearly time to turn it loose and I am not delivering it wearing cargoes!"

"Don't you need to be in a bed or something?"

"Hey, if Chinese peasants can deliver babies while squatting in the fields during the middle of a harvest…"

"Beep-Beep-Be-Beep" the Kimmunicator interrupted them.

Kim padded barefoot across the sandy ground and snatched up the Kimmunicator out of her mission pack expecting some sort of recorded message.

She felt her 'blue' extinguish with a pop as she read the short message. The shock of it caused her to sink to the ground to her knees. Two sentences brought her mind to a halt:

"Islands of Japan totally destroyed in kinetic strike as warning. All Possibles/Stoppables were lost."

Jim. Tim. Mom. Dad. All dead. Even little Hana and Rufus. Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable. She numbly handed Ron the Kimmunicator. There would be no comfort from him, not as jacked up on MMP as he was. But wait, that wasn't fair, this wasn't a time for comfort, her world was in danger and she was here for a reason.

She started pulling hard on the blue to numb her sorrow as physical pain rippled through her lower abdomen. 'It's an octopus, Sis, no head or shoulders so delivery should be practically painless', she remembered one of the Tweebs telling her. 'Painless my butt,' she thought as one last wave of sorrow crashed against her soul when she remembered that any chance to ever tell them that was stolen from her. Then the blue Mystical Monkey Power surrounded her, shielding her from much of the pain, both physical and mental. With the sharp edges of her sorrow and physical pain being wrapped in blue, she tried to straighten up when she felt thin tentacles with rows of miniature suckers latch onto her right thigh, as Shiva, Destroyer of Worlds, yanked itself free. Mystical Monkey Power notwithstanding, the pain almost made her pass out and she would have fallen had not Ron and Warmonga supported her.

"What is wrong with your mate?" the Lowardian woman asked. Looking at the shape that pulled itself into the arms of the young female human, the alien paled, "Warrigle, The Fell Judge of Warriors and Executioner of the Wicked…" she murmured, shivering in terror.

Kim, like in her dream, found herself cradling it in one arm and tickling it with her free hand. It batted and grabbed for her fingers playfully, but was silent.

Ron started to put the Kimmunicator down but remembered he was supposed to look at it. He read the message. Twice. He heard a piercing scream of rage that morphed into an insane laugh. The sound stopped when he realized it was coming from him. Checking the screen, he pointed out to Kim the timestamp on the message. Due to their extreme distance from the Earth, the message traveling at the speed of light took fourteen hours to get to them, Wade sent the message a little over fourteen hours ago. Japan had already been destroyed before they reached the fleet.

"I don't think you understand the magnitude of the problem you will have when the Great Blue or his Battlemate find out that you have already attacked his planet." Warhok was standing in front of the table where the Captain of captains was sitting with all his captains. He had been trying to convince them to pull the fleet out immediately. They needed to abandon any further attempts to loot the planet and forget their demand for the Battlemate's father, even if that meant the wormhole generator prototype and design would become worthless to them. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach when a commotion from the crowd behind him interrupted his arguments.

Looking up, Warhok and the captains saw the Great Blue, his Battlemate at his side, walking through the assembled warriors and spacers seated for the matches with Warmonga following close behind.

"Who ordered the attack on my world?" the human female asked in a voice that clearly carried through the area. Oddly, she cradled some sort of creature with tentacles?

"Child," the Captain of captains, replied, "we have found that a demonstration of power reduces the number of casualties and shortens negotiation with planetary governments."

Her voice clearly and coldly rang out, "That demonstration killed over a hundred and twenty million humans. Did none of you feel that was a _bad_ thing to do?"

The human female waved a thick, short rod over whatever it was she was holding. Tentacles reached up and pulled the rod out of a holder of some kind, the holder was dropped to the floor.

One of the obviously junior captains spoke up, "The Captain of captains make decisions with the full authority and support of all the other captains."

The Captain of captains stood, "We regret the excessive death toll, but the Earth must turn over James Possible without any delays, otherwise, we might have to pick a new place to demonstrate what happens to those who displease us."

He snapped his fingers and a clear wall snapped into position surrounding the captains. Armed and armored Lowardians started moving up behind them.

"Speaking of displeasing us, child, you had better beware, any disrespect from you could cause further demonstration strikes against your home."

"Turning over my Father to you won't happen, because _you_ killed him!", the human woman took a breath before continuing solemnly, her voice clearly heard over the confusion of the captains discussing if the scientist they needed was truly dead or if it was a trick of some kind.

"Verdict!" she called clearly,

"Guilty!" the Great Blue answered.

"Sentence!" the captains paused at this word.

"Death!" cried the Great Blue, breaking into a stream of insane laughter.

Kim released Shiva who turned transparent and then invisible as it dropped to the ground. Continuing the motion, she drew her pistol and fired a single shot, the gun emitting a blue flash. The Captain of captains' head exploded.

"Spankin'," she said brightly, lowering her gun hand while Ron raised his hand to point at the glowing hole melted through the protective shield. The hole changed from glowing red to glowing blue as air began whistling out of the hole as the captains trapped inside began to gasp and struggle to breathe.

"Hold!" shouted Warmonga to the advancing Lowardians, "the Great Blue is all that will stand between our people and destruction. Kneel and receive his Justice and Mercy!"

The mob of fighters had paused in confusion, but the collapsing of their captains right in front of them spurred some of the more loyal to action. Hoping that distracting Kim would save their trapped and dying leaders, two advanced on Kim. They took one step past Warmonga and their heads fell to the floor after a sweep of her hook-blade reached out.

After that, it was full pandemonium. Ron's continuing mad laughter was not helping to convince any fighters to surrender and ask for mercy. Warhok fought to protect Warmonga as he steadily pressed her unwillingly toward the exit. Projectile and energy weapons were uncommon due to being in a room where a miss would open a hole to the outside vacuum of space, but there were a few. Kim watched the crowd in-between using flying and spinning kicks and anyone who drew something that looked like it had a barrel was a target for an MMP enhanced .380 round.

Ron would be called the 'Blue Reaper of Judgment' by the handful of survivors. Floating above the deck in the eye of a hurricane of seats and deck plates torn free from the floor, the few survivors were soon in a full panic trying to escape.

Kim was not in the mood to shoot the few Lowardians trying to escape in the back, mainly because she only had one spare magazine left. Looking around at the carnage, she tried to consider it Justice but failed. Looking up to the table where the captains had sat, the clear screen was covered in blood and gore. Apparently, the expanding gas from their breakfast burritos had been deadlier than either of the Tex-Mex fans would have guessed. During the fight, she had heard several loud pops and splattering noises but ignored them. 'OK,' she thought, 'that's Justice.'

"Beep-Beep-Be-Beep"

Kim picked up the Kimmunicator from where it was dropped when the fight started. Another note was on the screen:

" _Analysis of local comms indicates that three messenger class crafts have boosted for deep space and are expected to escape retribution. Majority of heavy ships are changing course for Earth. This includes all kinetic energy strike units. Probability calculations suggest a massive strike against the planet even without any recognizable profit motive. Recommend generating a blackhole within the next five minutes to destroy entire fleet at this location. Require personal authorization to perform recommended action._ **\- Shiva**."

"Wade told me to have a plan to get back, Sorry, I got nothing, KP," Ron said as the whine of projectiles was heard going past.

Kim fired twice, the blue enhanced bullet curved up and then down toward an external door. There was a thud and then silence.

"Gotta protect our home. We've still got Wade, Slim, Joss, our friends in Middleton and billions of people we never had a chance to meet to protect," holding up the communicator she pressed the talk button, "This is Kim Possible. Shiva, destroy the fleet now." She held the unit out to the man that would never have a chance to grow into her boyfriend, the man that she would never have the opportunity to explore physical love with, saying, "It's OK, Ron, say it."

Never taking his eyes off of hers, he said, "This is Ron Stoppable, Shiva, destroy the fleet now."

Outside the dome, a ball of bright light grew until it was too bright to look at directly. Ron gathered up Kim in his arms, saying,

"KP, I'm sorry, I said I'd have your back and…"

He was interrupted by an explosion; doors that had been blocked by bodies were blown open. Large humanoids in full body armor and handheld weapons stormed in.

Ron stood up screaming, "It's the end of the world and you assholes are interrupting my moment!" A blue flash and a wave of his hand ripped up deck plates and sent them flying toward the intruders spinning like buzz saws. Outside, the ball of light collapsed into a tiny point of glowing violet. Around the teens, with a cacophony of pops and tearing metal, the transport along with the other ships in the fleet were torn to pieces around them with the pieces slowly falling into the violet point.

Kim and Ron found themselves sitting in a blue sphere floating in space, reminiscent of the sphere that Master Sensei could float in. She looked at her shaking hands then up into the soft brown eyes of her BFF as he tried not to panic. Creating the sphere must have required all the MMP energy leaving none for them. Here at the end, they were just Kim and Ron.

"Fuck me," she groaned, working hard to ignore the returning pain.

Ron pulled her into his arms, "Yeah, I know. Our families are dead, the world may never recover and we never had a chance to stop it, It's not fair."

She looked into his eyes, how could she have never noticed the love for her in those soft brown eyes, "No, you idiot, I am talking about sex, not some existential bullshit that has come due. I want you to fuck me."

Surprised, he replied, "I thought you had discarded that goth mentality, KP?"

"You're still talking. **_Why_** are you still talking?"

Ron carefully took her in his arms and kissed her, starting at her neck and working down to her breasts, the red dye of the tribal markings tasting sweet. Sliding his hand inside the waistband of her kilt, he stopped when she flinched in pain.

"KP! you're still hurting!"

"Ronnie. The problem is all the tissues that were forced to stretch when I was carrying the stupid thing for the last week. I've run out of painkillers and the blue is gone. But it's OK, Ronnie, I want you to do it. One of us should get a piece of pleasure before the end. Please, Ronnie, I want to give you pleasure before I die."

"I can't hurt you, Kim. Sorry, I just can't."

Even with her vision clouded with tears, Kim watched the purple point approaching,

"Ronnie, the time dilatation effect means that whatever we are doing when we hit the event horizon, we will do forever."

"Gotcha KP."

As his lips neared hers, she murmured, "Ronnie, I'm sorry for all my screw-ups."

"Don't be, I get to kiss the most bondiggity babe in the universe for all of eternity…"

The blue sphere disappeared into the purple point.

* * *

 **Two hours later**. An uncaring universe decided that the black hole had not consumed enough mass to be stable. The purple point ignited into a tiny star that burned brightly for approximately twenty-five hours and then burned out with a blue flash after consuming everything in the area. Not a trace of debris, love, or mystical power remained, only a short stick with gold spots that slowly begins to accelerate to a watery planet.

 **This is part two of the three-part ending.**

 **Part three will be posted tomorrow.**

Posted 8 Jan 2019


	23. Finale Three of Three

**This is part three of the three-part ending.**

* * *

 **STD 2018 Feels Epilogue**

Derrick was yanked aside barely in time as a burst of armor piercing rounds ripped through the space he had been occupying while looking around the corner of the building. The black-garbed Ninja gripping his jacket rolled its eyes and handed him a mirror on a stick.

Taking the tool with an embarrassed nod of thanks, he used it to peer around the corner. Watching for a moment, he suddenly stepped around the corner and fired two rounds from his grenade launcher. The bureaucrat had no talent for pistol or long gun, but he was a born grenadier. Told his team it was like a combination of badminton and billiards. (He claimed he was on his College Badminton team and paid a good bit of his college tuition shooting pool.) Once he figured out the timed detonation/air burst setting, no enemy was safe hiding behind concrete or earthen walls. He had discovered by accident that there was a fist-sized gap in the body of the Lowardian's mechanized combat walkers that, if you dropped a grenade into it, that was the end of that walker. Derrick had come across a sheet of little gold sticky stars and his grenade launcher had eleven on its stock. He had run out of walkers before he ran out of stars.

It wouldn't be verified for two days, but that was the last shot fired in the Great Lowardian Raider Defense.

* * *

 **STD 2018 Feels Epilogue**

The USS Colorado (SSN-788) slowly made its way through the dirty waters of what their GPS database claimed was downtown Tokyo. They had started their search to the south over what used to be Nagasaki. It followed a pair of inflatable boats it carried for special ops work. The small boats were watching for floating debris that might damage the hull of the fast attack submarine. The stunned crew wasn't finding any wreckage except dust and ash. The small depth finders they carried had only spotted water shallow enough for the sub to have to detour around twice in the 48 hours that they had been searching. No sign of the vibrant civilization with millions of people, just dust and ash.

Unbelievably, they had picked up three survivors and one of them was the other reason that the sub was traveling so slowly on the surface instead of speeding deep under the waves like a silent, black barracuda.

Satellite surface scanning radar had detected a single large metallic object slowly moving west. It was the only things spotted in an otherwise now empty part of the ocean. A giant cockroach, sparkling in the dim light from the overcast sky, was pulled from the ocean. Its unique rainbow coloring was from a thin vapor deposited coating of iridium. Carefully strapped to the deck, it was being cared for by a team of Navy Medics delivered by helicopter from the Carrier USS Ronald Reagan which had fortunately been patrolling the South, East, and Philippine seas and not at its home port of Yokosuka.

The other two survivors, a naked mole rat and an adult Eastern Indigo snake, were already back at the carrier. As they had carefully approached the large insect in the water, it opened part of its shell exposing its precious cargo. A crewman recognized Rufus, the second most famous member of Team Possible. The presence of Rufus was the deciding factor in rescuing the slowly paddling roach. As far as anyone was able to tell, the snake was just a snake. Non-poisonous and docile, just an ordinary snake that seemed to like to be held.

* * *

 **STD 2018 Feels Epilogue**

The cherry blossoms were in full bloom with a full moon illuminating the Courtyard in front of the Temple at Yamanouchi as students, dressed in Yukatas of all colors straggled back to the dorms from a festival held in a nearby village. Spotting two senior students, a blond with a small pink animal riding on his shoulder wearing a blue Lotus pattern and the other wearing a red dragon pattern that matched her gorgeous mane of red hair. The couple was laughing and walking arm in arm to their dorm, Katsumi, lost it, bursting into massive sobs and burying her face in the shoulder of her partner, certainly her partner in computer hacking and slowly becoming her partner in other areas.

Wade, throat choked with tears himself, managed to command the house A.I, "Bishop! Change holo-program to a boardwalk."

The grounds of Yamanouchi vanished and the bench they were sitting on was now next to a seaside boardwalk, light jazz drifting from a bar down the way,

"That is how I want to remember them, Wade-san," the tear-choked voice said, "laughing, in love, and together. Not as a star that burned out too quickly."

Katsumi and Wade had come out of the basement along with all the other Ninja Teams to say goodbye to fallen friends. Radio telescopes had detected Kim and Ron giving the verbal commands for Shiva to "destroy the fleet now." Astronomers using orbital telescopes detected what might have been the creation of a black hole. They were unsure because it was soon replaced by a tiny star, burning way too brightly for the estimated fuel it could have pulled in. Then, as predicted by astrophysicists from the Science Center, it suddenly grew in size ten diameters and disappeared after a blue flash. The astrophysicists were still trying to explain the blue flash. Heartsick, the pair had gone down to the holo-room in the basement to remember a happier Kim and Ron.

"That is a good way to remember them, Kat," Wade replied, holding her tight.

"Wade-san?"

"Yes?"

"This is a memory I want to have in the future," raising her voice, she called out to the house A.I, "Bishop-san, change holo to Yamanouchi Courtyard Plus Four."

The bench was again in the courtyard in front of the temple. But the temple was different, a little more modern perhaps? And the mountain was gone, the temple was on a hill surrounded by grasslands. Again, students were returning from some celebration. Towering over the other students was a large young black man, with what some might call an Asian mullet and a small neatly trimmed goatee. He was laughing with joy and happiness reflected in his eyes. At his side was an oriental woman, reddish highlights shining in her hair. They walked arm in arm like it was their natural way of going anywhere.

"Is that us?" Wade softly said, eyes wide with wonder.

"Yes. Bishop processed your image based on your family's history of males and their growth spurts. My image shows my natural hair color. My last name is Cullen and I color it dark so not to stand out in school."

"Why?"

"We have a saying, 'The nail that sticks up gets hammered down'."

"Not around me it won't," Wade said fiercely.

Katsumi raised her face and closed her eyes. Wade, with his heart about to beat out of his chest, bent down so their lips met. Given their level of experience, it wasn't the greatest kiss, but it was pure, loving and tender. The kind that only gets better with practice. And there was no better time to practice.

* * *

 **STD 2018 Feels Epilogue**

Suzie put her arms around her friend who had just shivered as if a cold wind blew on her soul, "Is it done?"

"It is done. The killers of our people are dead. But my heart screams for more vengeance," Wanda held the Lotus Blade. It had left their world with Ronald but had returned shortly after their star winked out of existence, officially signifying that his part of the prophecy was finished and now it was her turn. Wade and Katsumi were working to locate former students and students who had been overseas when disaster struck. Trying to locate them and invite them to Middleton. Because they had work to do.

"The time for vengeance has passed, it is time to rebuild, Toshimiru Wanda-Sensei."

"Do not call me that!" the taller Ninja cried in anguish, tears streaming down her face, "I am not worthy of that title, I never wanted it! I never wanted any of this! I just wanted to be a good Ninja soldier..."

"A Ninja does what she must to take care of her people. I will be at your side, always," said Suzie, throwing her arms around her friend in a tight embrace.

"Team Cobra will be yours forever, Wanda-Sensei," said Yori. She had, as a very young Ninja, dreamed of being the Chosen One and then becoming Toshimiru Yori-Sensei. That phase had passed long before Ronald became the Chosen One and like Wanda, he really didn't want that honor either, but eventually accepted it and started to do the best he could. She wondered what her beloved Master Sensei dreamed of as a boy? Was becoming the headmaster of Yamanouchi the honor of a dream come true or the responsibility that honor demanded that he accept?

"As will Team Indigo, Master Sensei," Katsumi pledged, "At least go look at Mount Middleton."

Sighing in defeat, Wanda held up a glowing blue sword. It changed into a war fan which she folded and put in a hidden pocket.

"OK, it couldn't hurt to look."

* * *

 **STD 2018 Feels Epilogue**

Wanda and Suzie approached a promising site near the peak for the new temple. As they approached, Wanda snapped open a blue glowing war-fan while Suzie produced a long dagger and shuriken.

Three people walked towards them. One was an elderly gray-haired woman, her face obscured by a scarf to ward off the cool breeze. The second was a short, skinny person wearing a dark blue hoody emblazoned with the phrase, "Trust No One". Its hood and dark glasses obscured its face. The third person had provoked the reaction from Wanda and Suzie. She was a muscular woman roughly six-feet, six-inches in height, with the red on yellow eyes they had seen before. Her features were soft as if she was a youth not fully grown.

"You don't need those weapons, dears," the elderly woman pulled her scarf down, "My name is Amanda Possible, I believe you have met my granddaughter, Kimberly. May I introduce my colleagues Gray and Warbyrd. I have an RV parked at the scenic turnout spot. Perhaps we could go there for some hot tea and talk out of this chilly breeze?

* * *

 **STD 2019 Preview: Finite Middletons (Future Middleton)**

The RV was comfortable enough for the five people. Suzie and Wanda sat at a small table nearest the door. Amanda sat across from them while Warbyrd sat in the driver's seat which swiveled around so she could join the conversation. While Gray heated water for tea, Warbyrd started by saying:

"My guess is that the timestream was first corrupted by a set of villains named Drakken and Shego with help from a few colleagues. They used an ancient artifact called the Time Monkey. Time has a memory, a 'default' where that it wants to flow. For example, go back in time and kill a murdering despot before he comes into power and someone else will appear to take his place. Kill a hero when she is a child and another will show up. Probably."

Nodding at Gray who slid a mug of hot tea over to her and put a plate of cookies on the table, the Lowardian continued,

"The Time Monkey had the power to alter the default path. The first use of the Time Monkey was to try to defeat Kim Possible. More importantly, during the period where Shego was taking over the world, Shego killed the Lowardian known as Warmonga. The Time Monkey was destroyed for all future times, causing the Time Stream to partially reset and we have destroyed the artifact for past times. The attempt before this one to put the timestream back on track ended with an angry, disillusioned Warmonga along with her battlemate Warhok battling Shego, along with Drakken, Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable. The result was again, her death. This last cycle, Kim Possible was encouraged to kill Drakken and Shego with the idea that with those two out of the way, Warmonga would befriend Kim and Ron and not die too soon."

Warbyrd sighed and took a sip of tea. "But this time, she had picked up Raiders for transport and in the battle to protect this planet, she was killed."

Suzie took advantage of the pause to ask, "What is so important about this one woman? And didn't you say that killing an important person causes a replacement to step up?"

"We don't know for sure," Warbyrd admitted. "I am from the future on a research assignment and cannot go home because the home I came from no longer exists. My research was on the influence of Middleton on future fashion trends in this part of the galaxy. I don't have any records concerning Warmonga or even Ron and Kim in my personal database. The closest I have is the name of a classmate of theirs, Monique."

"Wait, if your future doesn't exist, how can you be here?" asked Wanda.

"You can't think about it too hard, time travel's a cornucopia of disturbing concepts. To make sense of it we need to go up about two levels on the evolutionary scale. Which our ancestors will do together unless Warmonga dies too soon in which case they won't."

"Lowardia and Earth are allies?" Suzie asked.

"I've heard a saying in this time that 'friends help you move furniture; best friends help you bury the bodies of your foes.' In the time I am from, Earth and Lowardia are best friends. My great-grandfather was human. That's where I get my petite size."

"Humans and Lowardians can interbreed?" Wanda looked doubtful.

"With mechanical assistance and a little DNA editing, it's not a problem."

"So, what can we do? You sound like you want us to go back in time and change something?" Suzie asked.

"Gray can take you back in time to a point where you can influence Kim and Ron," Amanda Possible said, "We have attempted to insert too many changes close to this point in time, the time stream is getting brittle here. You will have to start at a point earlier in time."

"But what do we do?" asked Suzie?

"Make sure all principles live past this point in time," The Lowardian said, "We've tried killing them off in various combinations and it is pretty apparent that simply removing a player or three from the board doesn't work…"

"Maybe we could cause the Possibles and Stoppables to move to Yamanouchi before Ron and Kim start high school…" pondered Wanda, "that would give us more influence."

"Or we could take Yamanouchi to the children…" Suzi thought out loud. We have time to take a college course of two, correct, Gray-san?"

"Of course, there is plenty of time on this side," the pale person whispered, "Or I could take you back earlier and you could study in the past."

* * *

 **STD 2019 Preview: Finite Middletons (Future Middleton, Wade's house)**

Wade and Katsumi had a small assembly line going. Not that putting a ball of masa harina dough in a tortilla press, pressing it into a disk and then giving the pressed disk a quick grilling in a skillet to make a corn tortilla required an assembly line, but the pair of tech geniuses were attached at the hip for the last several days. Ever since they found out about the plan to go into the past to change the future.

Because there was one part of the future they were terrified to lose.

Their budding relationship.

Warbyrd had been sitting at the planning meeting where Wanda, Suzie, Wade's mother, and the two operatives, Yori and Hirotaka had been talking strategy. The two very young Ninja named Wade and Katsumi were also there but seemed to be relegated to a 'be seen and not heard' role. And apparently, the lunch cooks. Being the youngest child, and a daughter as well, she was familiar with that treatment.

"Excuse me a moment, I need to talk to someone," she told the others around the table. Getting up, she walked over where the two 'lunch cooks' had just put away the leftovers.

"I would like to see the hologram room please, if it is not considered too secret," she asked.

Down in the holo-room she sat on the bench beside the pair.

"Show me the future," she asked, and when Kim and Ron appeared, she asked, "No show me your future. I have to believe that one of you have used this to create a vision of a common goal, a motivation for what you want for your future.

Soon the courtyard changed and the grown versions of Wade and Katsumi walked across the grass.

"Can you freeze the animation, please," The alien got up and walked around the equally tall Wade-the-older and Katsumi-the-older.

"A very nice future indeed, you make a cute couple," the Lowardian said. Looking back at the bench, she saw that the young woman was blushing, the young man looked the same, it was hard to tell. Walking back across the grass, she sat down, folding her legs underneath her, Japanese style.

"Time travel's a cornucopia of disturbing concepts. There are beings whose job it is to manage the timestream and make sure that it doesn't flood its banks. But they aren't here. Maybe the original screwup here made a future without them. Maybe they evolved into something that is outside the concept of time."

She idly pulled some grass and let it fall from her fingers. The individual holo-blades fell, fluttering a few inches and the disappeared with a twinkle as if turning back to the fairy dust dreams are made of.

"So, are you willing to sacrifice the future of your two friends and the futures of all the people that died in Japan to get it?"

"No! Of course not!" the pair exclaimed.

"What do you think will happen if your teammates Yori and Hiro travel back in time and fix the defect?"

"We may never meet?" the girl was quick to catch on, or maybe her partner just didn't want to say it out loud.

"That's correct, but at least you will be alive in the default timestream. Along with your two friends and millions of humans. Who. Are. Now. Dead. But, there is a way to help make sure your future is closer to this ideal," the alien waved her hand at their frozen holographic image.

"How?"

"Simple, write down notes to each other, make a video, whatever, it just has to be a physical object. Gray is from totally outside this timestream, he will find you and give you the object at about this time. Then, Hiro and Yori will be integrated into the timestream change, they will remember about you two and convince Yamanouchi to send Katsumi to Middleton for an internship. You two won't have the same experiences that you had this time through the stream, but you guys will have a chance, right?"

"Warbyrd," Wade asked, "Why are you doing this?"

"Maybe Lowardians are big, old softies with romantic hearts…"

Her young audience looked unconvinced.

"Maybe I'm afraid that the two of you are smart enough to stop the mission because you are afraid you'll lose any chance of the future behind me."

"Did we do that in a previous timestream?" Wade looked too defiant, the Lowardian wondered if the safest bet was to kill both of them now. If their Ninja-nannies fixed the timestream in the past, the adorable geek couple here wouldn't be dead and wouldn't remember. 'Damn,' she thought, 'was this something we have already tried?'

* * *

 **STD 2019 Preview: Finite Middletons (Space Center)**

James Possible looked at the young man sitting alertly across from his desk.

"Mr. Misutanani, your credentials look very good, especially the ones in First Aid. You have a disturbing lack of references that I can actually talk to. Except, oddly enough, my mother."

"Please, Mr. Possible-sensei, call me Hirotaka. Do you not trust a recommendation from your mother?"

"Of course, Hirotaka. It is just that Mom sometimes gets involved in somewhat strange… Well. at any rate, we certainly need help with the boys. Their current after-school program is not working out and with both Anne and myself being pressured to work extra hours, there is no way we can ask Kimmie-cub to ride herd on them. I fear that Anne is being overworked and we need the help. Does the proposed schedule seem acceptable to you?"

"Of course, I will be at the house and available to assist 24/7 every day except Saturday and Sunday. I agree to be available on Saturday and Sunday with seventy-two hours' notice. The weekend work may be requested up to twice a month."

"Are the list of other duties acceptable?"

The Ninja pretended to look at the list again, he had been there when Amanda-sensei, Wanda, and Mrs. Load had created it a year ago his time.

"Yes, sir, it is," he replied, "Light cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping. Laundry for common items, take special items to dry cleaning. You have house cleaners and a lawn service under contract. I will pick up and deliver children to school and weekday events."

Hirotaka gave a small smile, "and of course, other duties may be requested as desired."

"Is the proposed salary acceptable? I understand that Mom and Anne have already discussed that with you?"

"Yes, the salary is most acceptable."

"How about a sixty-day trial period starting Monday?"

"That would be acceptable. Shall I show up on Saturday to move in and get acquainted with the children?"

James stood up and extended his hand, "Sounds perfect, welcome to the Possible household, Hirotaka."

* * *

 **STD 2019 Preview: Finite Middletons (Stoppable Home)**

"Miss Tanaka, your qualifications look excellent and Amanda Possible certainly gave you a glowing reference. Does the proposed schedule and tasks look acceptable?" Gene Stoppable thought that this meeting was a little silly as his wife Jean had already hashed out the details.

"Yes, they do. I have already gone over the details of the agreement with Mrs. Stoppable. It seems a bit odd that I may be asked to provide backup for the nanny of the Possible children," Suzie said this for cover, knowing the older Tweebs or 'Bouyatachi' as they were called by the Yakuza, she knew exactly why this was put in the agreement. In fact, she believed that Hiro would have almost rather taken over the duties of Master Sensei from Wanda instead of caring for the 'spirited' twins. Almost. Wanda, on the other hand, seemed to think that becoming the new Master Sensei in the future version of Yamanouchi was easier than Hiro's assignment.

"Jim and Tim are good boys, but they are a little spirited and can be a handful at times," replied Gene, "Ronald is best friends with Kimberly and gets along fine with Jim and Tim, so you can take him along for support."

Suzi smiled in agreement, then added, "I understand that from time to time I will be running the household for periods of up to a week while you and Mrs. Stoppable are out of town?"

"Ah, yes. I have been asked to team with Jean on a project that requires us to be at another branch office from time to time. We have been trying that with me staying home with Ronald and working remotely, but it would be vastly more efficient if we both could attend these uh, meetings together in person. We hope to be in a position to retire early and then spend all our time at home."

"How about I move in Saturday and we can start to adjust to each other?"

"That sounds perfect to me, welcome to the Stoppable household, Miss Tanaka."

Standing up, the young woman gave a little bow, saying, "Please call me Yori, Mr. Stoppable."

* * *

 **STD 2019 Preview: Finite Middletons (Possible Home)**

"Nana, care to tell us what is really going on here? Neither Jean nor I are as gullible as our husbands." Anne Possible sat at the kitchen table along with Amanda Possible, Jean Stoppable, and a youngish Oriental woman, who was introduced as Wanda Wang, principal supervisor of Yamanouchi Child care services.

The elder Possible sipped her coffee, "Dear, what makes you think that something is going on?"

"The references from these people reek of hiding something," Anne replied, "they have no people I can check on except for you that I can call for a reference. Their Medical CPR and First Aid Certs are either foreign or bogus, again, I can't check them!"

"Didn't Hiro and Suzie take the certification tests at Middleton General for medical and first aid?", asked the younger woman, "Dr. Possible-sensei, do you not believe the results?"

"Please don't misunderstand me, Ms. Wang," Anne stood and refreshed coffee all around except for pouring tea for Wanda, "I have interviewed both Hirotaka and Suzie and they seem like very nice, very knowledgeable, highly trained young people. Your services are not cheap, but I suspect that is only to prevent suspicion that they are too good to be true. Even so, I do suspect that they _are_ too good to be true."

"Anne," protested Amanda, "Don't be so suspicious. I know that even though James believes that he is sharing the load with the children, you are the one who is going without sleep and getting frazzled. That is no way for a brain surgeon to be. Similarly, Jean is having problems working with her clients because Gene isn't there in person to help her. By mere happenstance, I have run across a pair of nannies, who are talented, personable and can help out. I think they are certainly worth a try. Jean, you haven't said anything, what do you think?"

"Nana, I'm with my husband Gene on this, when something looks good but unlikely, that means there is still a small chance that it's good and real. He believes that they are an acceptable risk considering the potential high benefit."

"Well then, Ms. Wang," Anne said, "You have our deposits and first month's fees and I believe that James and Gene will ask them to start this weekend. I'm sure that we will be in touch from time to time?"

"Certainly," Wanda replied, "I do tend to be away from my phone but if you leave a message, I should be able to get back to you quickly."

* * *

 **CREDITS**

All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.

If it's a Ninja then it's a safe bet that it was directly copied from or inspired by Sentinel103 and his "Once Again" stories.

 **Authors Note:** Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and plot bunny wranglers.

I will apologize to Mindless Violence Fan for taking his concept, but not really being able to properly go through with it. I started this story with the idea of maybe three chapters of our heroes pushed to the breaking point and self-destructing. But I just couldn't pull that trigger.

I appreciate reviews from people just saying 'hi' with a simple comment. People like kmtdiccion, Joe Stoppinghem, gjagent2013, trood, Arvann S, KnightLawn, pittbuck

Props to JohnnyHandsome who made it to chapter 7 before getting lost down a giant plot hole.

zzzoo99 - oops, I never did have Team Go appear to talk with Kim about their sister.

And a special thanks to Uberscribbler who was quick to remind me about characters that needed more screen time, plot directions I needed to take and practically sponsored Snake-San and Lenard.

 **ABOUT THE ENDING**

OK, the ending wasn't as bad as the old TV show Dallas where season 9 turned out to be a dream, but it was still a little cheesy. When I was discussing with CajunBear, Daccu, and Sentinel about killing off a character at the end, Sentinel's recommendation was "Go Big or Go Home." So I started working on killing everyone off, except for Rufus, Roachie and Lenard who lived because I figured it would make Uberscribbler a little less unhappy with the ending.

Now that everyone is Most Sincerely Dead, I can do a time travel trope and fix it. Then it came to me: I have some of the Cream of the Yamanouchi Ninjas still walking the Earth. They can go back as Nannies and "guide" the young teens Kim and Ron down the path that will lead them to be a stronger team with the romance thing resolved early, etc, etc. **Because we all know just how reasonable young teens are to listening to elders and accepting guidance** …

 **This is part three of the three-part ending.**

 **Posted 9 Jan 2019**


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